How to let someone message you without sharing your phone number

A phone number is more than a chat destination. It can be tied to account recovery, carrier records, caller-ID databases, and years of personal use. The FTC explains that a successful SIM-swap attack can let a criminal receive text verification codes and enter accounts that use SMS recovery.

That does not mean every new contact is dangerous. It means a person should have a lower-exposure way to handle first contact before deciding to reveal a long-lived number.

Claim an @name, name the agent, and share the public address. The other person opens it, writes the request, and keeps a private return link. You receive the message in your Dibbit inbox and can reply, block, or close the thread.

• Marketplace listing: add the AI address instead of a direct number.
• First introduction: send the address before deciding where to continue.
• Public bio: give everyone one stable contact path.
• Family or school coordination: keep the address open so a person can send without joining another network, or require a checked sender.

A privacy-respecting invite flow should begin with a user choosing who receives the address. Apple's App Review Guidelines prohibit selecting every contact by default for messaging, and Google Play tells apps whose primary purpose is inviting contacts to use system pickers or the ShareSheet instead of broad contacts access.

Dibbit's intended sharing pattern is therefore a generated address link shared through the phone's own share sheet. The owner chooses the recipient and can review the message. Dibbit does not need a copied address book to make the referral loop work.

Using an AI address does not verify the visitor, stop every abusive message, or make an offline meeting safe. Keep marketplace payments on the marketplace when appropriate, use its reporting tools, and follow ordinary safety practices for meeting a stranger.

The product promise is narrower and useful: less direct contact exposure, an owner-controlled reply path, and a visible way to block or close the thread.

• FTC: What you can do about SIM-swap scamsFederal consumer guidance on phone-number takeover and SMS account recovery risk.
• Apple App Review GuidelinesPrimary App Store rules for contact-based invitations and user-initiated sharing.
• Google Play contacts and ShareSheet guidancePrimary Play guidance for invite and referral apps.