My guess is that this is a fight between Blizzards service provider and your countries phone network provider and as someone who has worked in a company who had a service provider who was in a fight between a foreign network provider; chances are if you try to raise the issue with either of these companies they’ll just point at eachother.
I hope its not for your case, but it just sounds so familiar. If it is, blizzard has been upfront and honest with you in that there really is nothing they can do here.
Basically it happens when a network manager decides that a service provider isn’t meeting the terms and conditions (sometimes that means lack of payments, but also adherence to rules set by the network managers) they set to allow access on their network, while the service provider believes that actually; they have.
This is often an irresolvable situation, what you could try is get an e-sim that’s connected to the internet rather then any phone network and give that up as a number?
If your country has like a great firewall type of deal like China that might not work either tho
Edit: Apparently there is an app called sms virtual accessible for both android playstore and apple app store that seems to do what you need here. That said I have no experience with the app because I never needed it for any usecase.
I don’t think anyone sensible is disputing that. Most are taking issue with it being discrimination, which it isn’t. That doesn’t stop the SMS part being an issue ofc. The OP has every right to complain he can’t access this service.
So far I’m not finding any reliable or safe resolution online.
It surprises me that the option to have the code emailed does not exist. This could have been a backup option. Wonder why blizzard does not offer this?
The problem here is not that they can’t receive /send SMS .
That is what it is .
The problem is they enforce this bs rule to have authenticator , to be able to use basic functions of the Group Finder .
This was not always the case and was changed somewhere around Legion or BFA .
Giving people bag slots > OK
Giving People Mount and Pet > OK
Blocking game functionality > NOT OK
The functionality that is missing
1: Set titles to Dungeon , Raid , Arena and Rated PvP groups in LFG
2: Set description to Dungeon , Raid , Arena and Rated PvP groups in LFG
Btw you can set title and description in Custom , Questing and all other sections in LFG .
Just verified this with a friend .
This is straight up trolling and i agree it is discrimination .
Why shouldn’t he be able to make groups in the above 4 sections because he has no Authenticator ? Who benefits from this ?
At the very least provide different options , if you are so insistent on make this mandatory .
There are things like Phone OTP , which give a random generated token inside an APP you install , without a phone number needed . How come a multi-million company cannot provide some base functionality and options like that ?
Feels like it is not about the protection , but about providing your phone number .
No one is saying you cannot use the group finder .
If you read carefully I am saying you cant use Title and Description , which is a basic function .
Not only that , but it is blocked in 4 specific sections of the Group Finder , while it works in all other .
Where’s the logic in that ? It feels like it was specifically designed to make players miserable .
Excuse me , but when publishing a book , it is a base function to have A title Printed .
You do not subscribe to Premium to publish something with a title .
Being able to Label your stuff is something that anyone allows .
Neither is lacking a title prohibiting you from printing a book . Just no one will be able to find it.
You are missing the point here .
But whatever , arguing over what someone perceives as standard , is pretty much pointless .
But even assuming you want to do things this way , Blizzard is not allowing you any different way to enable this .
As I said there are things like Phone OTP apps , email notifications and what not , that do not need a phone number .
This would pretty much solve the problem the OP has .
For some reason this is not allowed .
Hell it would be cheaper to blizzard to do this , because you will not spend money on SMS fees .
Yet it is not done . Weird …
Because those were the areas where run sellers and bots DID use to cause the most damage. Every other listing isn’t a competitive area that could earn them real money by selling boost runs.
that is not their point actually .the op is claiming that because they belong to certain country blizzard is not sending them a sms .
whereas looking at the threads in customer service it is clear that some people irrespective of their countries are not receiving sms and the gm in their ticket replies have acknowledged that their is infact a problem in sms system .
plus as punyelf has said that you can still use the group finder function to do content .
Did you really read my post before posting a reply or you just wanted to join the bandwagon? Ive made multiple tickets and I was specifically told that this service is not available in my country and they cannot do anything about it. Again, not really being overly dramatic. It is also a deal breaker for me because what I enjoy the most ingame revolves around creating raid/dungeon groups. Doesn’t invalidate my point if you’re from the same country and its not a dealbreaker for you. Thank you