What happens if I release my text number or someone on my team leaves?

Releasing your workspace number is permanent: the number is given up, sending and receiving from it stop, the monthly charge stops, and while your past conversations stay in your records you can no longer text from that number. If a teammate leaves, nothing happens to the number itself. It belongs to your workspace, not to any one person, so it keeps working. The details below cover each situation, and why what you can do next depends on how you registered.

Releasing your number

You can release your workspace number from Settings → Messaging. Because releasing can't be undone, it sits behind a typed confirmation so it can't happen by accident. When you release a number:

• The number leaves your workspace for good. You can't get that specific number back, and it may be reassigned to someone else later.
• Sending and receiving stop. Any text sent to the old number after you release it won't reach you.
• The monthly charge stops. You're no longer billed for the number once it's released. See How much does texting cost? for what the monthly charge covers.
• Your history stays. Past conversations remain in your records for reference. You just can't send or receive from that number anymore.

Only release a number if you're sure you won't need it. If you just want to pause texting for a while, turning messaging off keeps your number and registration so you can pick up where you left off. Releasing throws the number away.

Getting a new number later: individuals vs businesses

Whether you can get a new number after releasing one depends on how you registered. See Setting up text messaging and fixing registration rejections for the difference between the two registration types.

If you registered as an individual (sole proprietor): your registration is tied to your personal mobile number, and a personal mobile can back only 3 individual registrations for its lifetime. Releasing a number does not give that slot back. So if you've used your slots and then release your number, you may not be able to register a new one on the same personal phone. If that happens, registering as a business is the reliable way to get a new number.

If you registered as a business (with an EIN): your registration is tied to your company, not to a person. You can release the number and register the business again for a new one. It goes back through carrier review, which usually takes 1 to 2 business days, so plan for a short gap before the new number can send.

When the teammate whose phone backs the registration leaves

If the person who left had registered as an individual, their personal mobile was used to verify your workspace's registration. Here's what that means once they're gone:

• The number stays and keeps working. It belongs to your workspace, not to the person, so texting continues uninterrupted after they leave.
• The registration still carries their name and mobile. An individual registration stays associated with the person who verified it until your workspace re-registers the number or releases it. Their personal information doesn't detach on its own when they leave.
• They can ask us to remove their information. If a departed teammate wants their personal mobile and name taken off the registration, they can contact support and we'll help dissociate it.

If you'd rather not leave a former teammate's personal details attached, you can re-register the number as a business, which replaces the individual registration.

Avoid this: register as a business

Both headaches above (running out of individual registration slots, and a former teammate's personal mobile staying on the registration) come from an individual registration being tied to one person's phone. Registering as a business with an EIN avoids both: the registration belongs to the company, so you can release and re-register freely, and no single person's mobile is attached to it. If your business has an EIN, choose the business registration from the start. New to all of this? Start with How do I set up text messaging for my workspace?.