Before you travel abroad, install the messaging apps people use in that country 💬

There is one thing that is safe to do before you go on a trip abroad.

It is to install all of the social apps (messaging apps) that people often use in that country.

I learned this on my trip to Korea.

When you live in Japan, apps sometimes tell you, "Please verify with your phone number."

When you type in your phone number, I think a message like "Your code is ○○" usually comes to the built-in messaging app on your iPhone.

But when I was in Korea and verified my phone number in a Korean app, for some reason it did not come to my SMS, and it came to KakaoTalk.

This is not only in Korea.

When I was in the Philippines and Malaysia too, when I typed in my phone number, the code sometimes came through WhatsApp or Messenger.

So, when you type in your phone number but the verification message never comes by SMS,

• for a Korean app, in KakaoTalk,
• for an app from another country, in WhatsApp,
• or in Rakuten's Viber (the purple app),

it may have arrived.

When you travel abroad or live abroad, just install all of the standard messaging apps that people often use in that country.

If you sign in too, phone number checks will go smoothly, and it is useful.