Comparison

SMS QR codes show your number. A relay doesn't.

Dozens of free generators will make you an "SMS QR code." Scan one and the phone opens its Messages app with a number pre-filled: your real number, handed to whoever scanned. That's not a privacy tool; it's your number, laminated.

The comparison, honestly

	SMS QR code	HeyTextMe relay
Your number visible to scanner	Yes, it's in the code itself	Never
Revocable	No, once scanned it's kept	Pause or block any time
Block a specific person	Only via your phone's carrier tools	One tap, silent
Works if scanner won't text a stranger's number	Many hesitate	Web chat, name optional
Scanner needs	SMS plan	Any browser
You get	SMS from unknown numbers	Inbox + push, sender named or guest-tagged
Cost	Free to generate	A sticker

When an SMS QR code is genuinely fine

Fair is fair: if the audience already deserves your number, the plain code is simpler. A wedding-table "text us photos" sign, an internal office poster, a flyer for close-knit club members: trusted, bounded audiences. Print away.

When it isn't

Anything left unattended in public: a car window, a pet tag, luggage, a storefront, your laptop. There, the audience is "anyone who ever walks past," the code can be photographed once and kept forever, and there is no undo. That's exactly the situation the relay was built for: the message gets through; the number never does.

See it applied: car & parking · pet tags · lost & found.

Questions

Can't I just get a second phone number instead?

A burner number hides your main line but still rings, still gets spammed, still can't block per-conversation or pause, and costs monthly. A relay is built for exactly this job.

Do relay messages arrive as SMS?

They arrive in your HeyTextMe inbox with a push notification, faster than SMS in practice, and nothing about your number is involved.

What if I already printed an SMS QR code?

Whoever scanned it has your number; that can't be unshipped. Going forward, a relay sticker over it stops the bleeding.

Get your sticker

Small first batch. Your number stays private. That's the whole point.

Join the first batch