For the Security/Anonymity Minded ...

There's a cool tutorial at The Intercept today on how to set up Signal (an encrypted messaging app) without revealing your phone number.

It looks like a real pain in the ass, and there are alternatives to Signal without the phone number requirement. But Signal is also quite popular and it might be easier to go this route than convince your friends to switch to something else.

On the other hand, unless those friends also pull the "not my phone number" schtick, then any government agency wanting to find you could just subpoena their phone numbers and torture them into revealing your identity, right?

Alternative method to The Intercept method: Instead of trying to find a pay phone, find some way to use a stranger's or business's land line.