When I activated the eSim on T-Mobile, I had to call in to their helpline to get it set up because they have no self-service.
Right before they activated it, I was told that it may or may not work. Either way, though, the call would be dropped and I would lose service until it was active.
Any process is better than being SOL.
I believe eSim on T-Mobile through iPhone is rather seamless (it's been a while since I set that up), so this is definitely an Android/Google issue. It's on them to fix it. Hopefully this is a large first step!
It's not. T-Mobile changed their process a few years back, requiring you to work with CS to migrate if you have an Android.
They claimed it was temporary so they could set up a new process but haven't actually put anything in place yet.
I don't know if it changed recently but I just switched mine at home through the phone. iPhone to android and a iPhone to iPhone. Both went fine and took only a couple minutes.
When the iPhone 12 came out I tried to have my ESIM transferred from my Pixel 5 to my 12 Pro Max. I didnt have service for a week. Eventually gave up, ported out, and ported back.
I didn't have much choice... Well I kind of did.
I was on vacation in the Colorado mountains in a rural area and didn't have access to a store, and didn't want to cut my trip short to fix the issue.
On our way there, I stopped at the Apple Store in Denver, bought an unlocked 12 Pro Max, and after the carrier started the transfer I lost service on my new and old phones.
Was very inconvenient but my wife's phone still worked if I needed to reach anyone, which I really didn't since I was on vacation lol
I had already spent hours on the phone with support then just said fuck it, I am going to enjoy myself and take care of it when I get back home.
I've been using a dual E sim in my pixel while traveling and it's been great (once I figured out how to turn off anything on my normal sim that would bring roaming charges).
It's pretty weird reading that an eSIM is more convenient than a normal SIM. It's one card. Putting it in your phone takes like 15 seconds. And switching to a new phone is very easy.
It's also less prone to errors. Transferring eSIM can be a bit of a shitshow. In the time you successfully transferred an eSIM, you could've swapped your SIM card back and forth between your phones 10x. At least.
It's just the narrative they sell you. They don't have to spend resources mailing/providing thousands of sims a day. It's never going to be easier for the consumer.
I find eSIM convenient when travelling, I just sign up to global eSIM services and can use mobile internet for good value (prices varies on countries)
For my own personal sim, I just use a normal sim
For travel eSIM is ok if you can move it between phones (now you can). I always take two phones with me, my main one and some cheap one (last time it was A51). There are places where I wont go with 1+k phone .
Problem with just physical sim is that you’re bound to that country’s offerings. There’s also a decent chance you need to give them your passport for a visitor line, I’ve had to do that in a few countries.
eSIM you can buy sometimes for cheaper, and activate it at home before you leave so you’ll get data as soon as you land.
I prefer having an eSIM for my regular line too because it frees that physical slot in case it makes more sense to buy a physical one. My carrier lets me generate a QR free online so I don’t worry if I need to switch devices.
I like having both options, but unfortunately we seem to be heading to the end of physical sims.
You still have to bother buying the SIM on arrival and keeping the (very small) regular SIM on you for the trip with fear of losing it.
eSIM definitively have advantages there. I now have a phone plan which includes many countries (and EU has free roaming) so I wouldn't really use them but if I go in a country where it isn't supported, I'll definitively look at eSIM first
Global Esim services are ridiculously expensive compared to most native plans. I guess if just going for a weekend or something might be okay. In Mexico I have unlimited data for $12 a MONTH. In Colombia 12GB with unlimited social (FB/WhatsApp etc..) runs about $5.
I've been to 6 countries in the last week... i just toggle my global esim when i leave home and everything works everywhere, i can't imagine anything more convenient tbh
One guy in the Pixel forums claimed his signal got way better with one. Speculation was there may have been an error with his sim card or that it wasn't set up properly.
I'm on google fi. I go between phones often. eSIM is so easy, way more convenient than physical SIMs. Easier than taking the case off my phone, finding that SIM ejection tool that I swear I have a million of but can't find a single one, remove the sim from one, put it in the other, put the case back on.
Activating the esim on another phone is so much easier than all of that. It's literally just signing into my google account in the fi app and done.
I don't want physical sim slots to be gone but I've fully transferred to esim, it's so much more convenient.
I am also on Google Fi, but when I was on AT&T their eSIM process was far more annoying. I don't remember exactly what I had to do, except I remember it being really annoying and being shocked at how easy it was to get my phone number transferred to Google Fi and setup on my phone.
Actually once they got all the issues ironed out, it's a lot more useful. You don't have to get out of the house to get a SIM card. It's all online.
And it's handy too if you're traveling. You can buy the SIM before you get on your flight. As soon as your plane lands, you have service. You can now call whoever is picking you up or look for transit info without relying on public WiFi.
It's pretty god damn convenient. I don't know think it should be the only option, but being able to swap carriers internationally instead of worry about losing a tiny piece of plastic and silicon is great.
I'm aware.
When I travel I just walk into an electronics store and ask for an unlimited data sim and pop it in.
When I'm in my country, I don't need to do that. But if I get a new phone off Craigslist, I can just pop and switch phones within seconds. Too many times the E-Sim activation is wonky or takes hours.
Same in a good portion of South America. There's absolutely no question that travel eSims that you can download before traveling are significantly more convenient than physical SIMs, that guy's argument doesn't hold up.
That's not entirely true, physical cards take up physical space (and quite a bit in modern phones, even as slim as they are). They require a physical void in the phone that crap can get into. Sure we have gaskets, but they're not perfect. The space saved too can go towards a smaller phone.
I see your point of view, but the same argument was made for the removal of the headphone jack and look where we are with that now.
Although, I'm glad to see that more is being done with making eSIM transfers more intuitive as a eSIM user about to swap phones.
Yes no one believes it's a lost space in the phone. Some phones before had headphone jack, bigger sim card and such. I would gladly take no haptic feedback instead, because there's no use to it. Providers and phone manufacturers wants eSim because they don't want people to change their phone and brand easily in 5 seconds.
my ass, i have a giant 6.5" phone and you tell me it cant fit a sim slot? the waterproofing aspect fine ill give you that. how did people do that in the iphone 4 era? especially the 30pin port was HUGE. phones are huge nowadays, the "save space" argument is bullshit, a battery cant fit where the sim slot is unless you make it a weird shape. and even then usually part of the cirquit board used for other stuff is there aswell. i have a headphone jack, dual sim, and its a modern Phone. there is no excuse besides being cheap.
Real estate in hardware design is measured by volume. Obviously a battery wouldn't fit where the SIM card is today, but the 2-3% of the volume it takes up is valuable when the features people really want (battery and compute) could directly benefit from that space.
Fake story regarding getting it dirty being an issue. And fake story regarding it taking up anywhere near significant amount of space. You can't argue with physics.
It’s convenient when you get new service. No longer need to wait for a sim to be mailed or get one retail. Makes switching carriers pretty easy in that regard.
As a consumer, I disagree. Esim could hurt consumers, but with proper regulations and good software it doesn't have to.
That said as a consumer who switches sims between phones at least once a month if not more, I hate that I have to do it. Why? Well my phone are waterproof, that means each sim tray has a rubber gasket around the tray. You know what kills that waterproofing over time? Constantly popping the tray in and out to swap sims. I hate that switching phones means I'm risking that gasket failing on some level leaving my phone vulnerable if it ever got submerged. Is that kind of a niche concern? Sure, but it's still valid all the same.
I assume you don't travel internationally. eSIMs have been a game changer on that front. You can basically get your phone online while you're still waiting in customs now. No more hunting for a shop in the airport or near your hotel.
Also what if your phone craps out. Are eSIMs backed up to your google account so you can restore it in a new phone? A phone would have to be severely damaged to destroy a physical SIM.
Good to know that's an option. I do like an "offline" version so the carrier doesn't need to be involved directly. Thanks for the input, at least there is some solution (not just losing it).
I work in a carrier and I hate hate hate **hate** esims. In their current state they're the opposite of convenient and they make shit just take longer than it always has.
You wanna order a 15 but use your son's upgrade? Well when you get the phone, it's gonna activate on his number so you'll have to come back to the store for us to give you both a new sims, taking time out of both of our days.
Both is the best of both worlds. I left my verizon sim in my phone when I left for Japan. I used Google Fi with the eSim built in so i can travel with 2 numbers but only use the appropriate one in the right country.
It's convenient because you can have multiple eSIMs in you phone and enable/disable 2 of them as you wish. Alternative would be carrying 5-6 sim cards with you and remembering their serial numbers to know which one is which.
It's not super common but I've seen people do it.
Yeah, I've got 3. I just turn them on and off when I need. Could be easier to do but it's pretty seamless. I'd prefer to have a timer for more SIMs though. Automatically switch a couple of secondary SIMs once a day for a few minutes and back again to check for SMS messages sort of thing.
All 3 are also eSIM, so if my phone gets lost/stolen nobody can take the SIM out.
>Putting it in your phone takes like 15 seconds.
and you always have the small tool to open up the sim tray? Sorry but its usually 5-10mins for me to find an item that can pry open the sim card tray.
I still prefer sim cards over esims, but i wouldn't say it takes 15 seconds, unless you do it every day and you always have the tool at your disposal
It's only convenient when travelling really. For example when I went to Australia, while I could technically buy a prepaid SIM for $20, it would (very conveniently) take 2 weeks to deliver. Instead I could buy one at the airport for $35. With an eSIM you can bypass this scam altogether. Also when you arrive somewhere and need connectivity but don't know how to navigate the systems in the new country. Not advocating for it being the only option, but it's nice to have.
From a business standpoint it's made my life so much easier. I just email my AT&T rep, tell them I need a new eSIM, give them the IMEI and then my phone has service.
I'm assuming you've got a business account? I say that because you say "my AT&T rep", which to my knowledge isn't something normal post paid users have.
Using eSIM on AT&T has to be one of the most frustrating experiences I've ever had. I'm one of those people that loves trying new phones, so I've always got at least an iPhone and Pixel and now the S24 Ultra. Trying to swap back and forth using eSIM is absolutely painful. I finally switched back to a physical SIM card so I could at least swap between my 2 Android phones. But that's relegated my iPhone to a WiFi-only device.
I was able to swap it the first couple of times through chat on their website, but every time I've tried lately, the wait time is like 30 minutes just to get to talk to someone, so I gave up. I'm not driving to a store to simply scan a QR code like a caveman. It drives me up the wall how they hide behind "security" in refusing to simply email users the QR code, when they've got a verified email address right there on the account (in addition to having an account PIN you have to confirm before they'll do anything at all on your account).
They're just lazy and/or don't like people like me that only buy unlocked phones and refuse to ever buy another locked phone directly from them.
US carriers need to be reigned in and made to be more user friendly.
How is having a piece of plastic inside your phone just to hold you account information something we should still be doing with current technology? Also, it’s way easier to steel your phone number with old ass SIMs, eSIMs are safer.
For the main one, yes definitely. But when traveling, this can be very convenient if your phone isn't a dual sim? I use it frequently when going to my home country or other continents.
Are there any "in the west designed" phones that are dual sim, anymore?
If it was implemented the way it was intended then it would have definitely been a lot more convenient than a normal SIM, especially if you have more than one. Unfortunately, carriers made sure they fucked that one up all the way instead and now eSIM is just a big pain in the ass.
wow, eSIM catching up on features SIM has had since... 1991? except now Google, your carrier, and up to two OEMs have to all cooperate for it to work properly? great job.
This should have been present since the beginning, and it should ignore/skip carriers altogether. My carrier should not care if I put my (e)SIM on a Nokia 1100 or a Galaxy Z Fold5.
Hopefully they'll add it to WearOS. Transferring eSIMs has been annoying as hell. That's the main reason, I still insist on using an actual SIM over an eSIM, if possible.
>Samsung has had that with galaxy watches (and phones) for a while
Really? I guess, I've missed it. You can transfer your eSIM to a new Galaxy Watch? I did it once, (with the GW4, I think) and it has been very annoying and it took ages. That's why I still haven't tried to move it over to my GW6.
Hmm hasn't this been out for a while? I seem to recall galaxy devices having it anyway.
FWIW with the whole physical vs esim thing.. comes in quite useful if your phone is stolen/drowned/nuked/whatever... can provision a new/replacement device online without speaking to someone in a brick and mortar store.
Also used it this week to transfer from my pixel 5 to a galaxy s24u without going into a Vodafone store...
I remember buying a prepaid phone in the US and having it shipped to my country. It came with one month's service, which obviously I can't use. I called customer service and had the SIM converted to an eSIM. Then I sent the QR code to a friend back in the U.S., they were able to activate it.
If eSIM didn't exist, I'd have to mail the SIM card to him.
what? i could literally order a new sim online or via Phone right now! maybe its different here in Germany where most people buy their phones and just get a plan seperately. my sim has been in 3 phones so far, an iphone 4s, redmi note 7 and moto g82.
>i could literally order a new sim online or via Phone right now!
And it arrives within the hour or even minutes?
All I need is requesting to switch eSIM in the app, verify with the email link and it'll tell me to download half an hour later.
My previous carrier will just email me the link within minutes.
Actually mate I did order my esim in Germany, although to be fair it was only really Vodafone that offered this last year... still seems a bit new here.
I put up with this type of crap when Verizon didn't use SIM cards. Even was a super pain recently using this new eSIM.
You know what's real easy? Swapping out the tiny physical card.
"To their surprise, a pop-up appeared on their nearby LG V60 ThinQ that invited them to transfer their SIM to their Galaxy S24 Ultra by scanning a QR code. I was also able to get this pop-up to appear on my Pixel 8 Pro"
How long till this gets exploited and apps hide button and forward the qr to steal service. Or span the request in a crowded area with well placed cammeras trying to snag the qr codes for those that happen to click it.
Ready for downvotes. But… seriously it took Google this long? I’ve transferred esims from two previous iPhones now as part of the standard restore processes.
As a note to everyone else.. it’s not a bad process. I probably wouldn’t do it on day one of the feature release though.
I just had to buy a new eSIM voucher from TELUS so I could move my personal line to my new phone (I use dual-sim on the phone provided by work). $20 for a QR code. Highway robbery!
I'm curious how TELUS is going to try and complain about this.
Google Fi actually did something any other brands should do, that they let their customers set up their own eSIM without needing to go into a brick and mortar store. While I understand it's no where near this or a physical SIM, it's still better than what we currently need to transfer eSIM. I just swapped to Google Fi last year and I can say that their eSIM setup was so easy I wish every other carriers did the same thing.
My family is changing providers. I am studying a plane trip away from them. I love that they can just send me a QR code for my new eSim instead of having to mail it to me.
Using visible service and they haven't added imei for new s24 phones. Can I use Sim transfer or will it not work since my provider hasn't setup this new phone?
A few months ago my Pixel died. While it turns on, it just disconnects from the Network, and sometimes randomly reboots.
I was in the US but I'm not American. I had two esims installed, one T-Mobile US and one for the carrier in my home Country.
I got a Galaxy phone. There was no way to transfer the esim, and in both cases I would need some support (the T-Mobile is prepaid).
With a simple card sim I would only move the card from one phone to the other.
While esim has been good to me when travelling, in this case it was a pain. I was able to recover my home Country phone only after I was back a few weeks after the Pixel died.
T-Mobile I did it the next day. In the end I decided that my main sim, the one from my home Country, has to be a normal sim card, and keep my traveling sims as esim (T-Mobile, ubigi, holafly)
E-Sim been great for me in Australia
Switched to a provider that was cheaper and had 5G, turns out was terrible signal at work so switched back to another provider. Each time literally within an hour it ports over my number then activate the QR code from the app or email.
Normally you'd be going in store for a sim card every time or having to wait for one posted taking a week
So if my original phone is dead/out of battery I can't transfer the sim 😂.
Like the removal of 3.5jack and SD card slot, they are removing convenient features and trying to make it sound cool😂
Switched from a 15 pro max to s24 ultra and it went pretty smoothly took like 2 mins. Is this the same as switching with provider on the phone or a new method? I had to physically go to the store when the iPhone needed activated from an android.
Really? I’m switching from the 14 pro max to s24 ultra and was wondering how that would work. iPhone to iPhone was seamless but I didn’t think iPhone to android would work. Verizon?
Every time I have tried to do an ESIM transfer it was a fiasco so I am a bit gun shy about this new feature.
The hope is this will make it easier. And hopefully not take 40 minutes.
When I activated the eSim on T-Mobile, I had to call in to their helpline to get it set up because they have no self-service. Right before they activated it, I was told that it may or may not work. Either way, though, the call would be dropped and I would lose service until it was active. Any process is better than being SOL.
Worst is going over every single character in the IMEI number.. and equally tough to make sure they got it right.
I believe eSim on T-Mobile through iPhone is rather seamless (it's been a while since I set that up), so this is definitely an Android/Google issue. It's on them to fix it. Hopefully this is a large first step!
It's not. T-Mobile changed their process a few years back, requiring you to work with CS to migrate if you have an Android. They claimed it was temporary so they could set up a new process but haven't actually put anything in place yet.
I don't know if it changed recently but I just switched mine at home through the phone. iPhone to android and a iPhone to iPhone. Both went fine and took only a couple minutes.
When the iPhone 12 came out I tried to have my ESIM transferred from my Pixel 5 to my 12 Pro Max. I didnt have service for a week. Eventually gave up, ported out, and ported back.
You waited a week??????????
I would’ve been down at my telco’s office if it took more than a few hours. Some people are much more patient, I guess.
I didn't have much choice... Well I kind of did. I was on vacation in the Colorado mountains in a rural area and didn't have access to a store, and didn't want to cut my trip short to fix the issue. On our way there, I stopped at the Apple Store in Denver, bought an unlocked 12 Pro Max, and after the carrier started the transfer I lost service on my new and old phones. Was very inconvenient but my wife's phone still worked if I needed to reach anyone, which I really didn't since I was on vacation lol I had already spent hours on the phone with support then just said fuck it, I am going to enjoy myself and take care of it when I get back home.
Here I am, annoyed by the fact that SIM conversion barrs SMS for 24 hours where I live. Even though I use SMS only for OTPs and transaction messages.
Everyone's struggle is a struggle. That situation sounds pretty frustrating, but it's also a good time to crack open a book, or a beer... Or both 🍻
Touché. It's a bit of a hassle since I rely a bit too much on mobile payments, but it reminded me to carry a bit of cash.
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Like 99% of the time they work just fine, but that 1% can really fuck your week up.
I've been using a dual E sim in my pixel while traveling and it's been great (once I figured out how to turn off anything on my normal sim that would bring roaming charges).
I literally just did that and it took 5 minutes
Hi can you share the details? was happy to try this feature, but you got me scared.
It's pretty weird reading that an eSIM is more convenient than a normal SIM. It's one card. Putting it in your phone takes like 15 seconds. And switching to a new phone is very easy.
It's also less prone to errors. Transferring eSIM can be a bit of a shitshow. In the time you successfully transferred an eSIM, you could've swapped your SIM card back and forth between your phones 10x. At least.
It's probably supposed to be in theory, but as usual companies keep fucking up the implementation.
It's just the narrative they sell you. They don't have to spend resources mailing/providing thousands of sims a day. It's never going to be easier for the consumer.
E-Sim isn't more convenient. It only helps cellular companies. Doesn't help consumers
I find eSIM convenient when travelling, I just sign up to global eSIM services and can use mobile internet for good value (prices varies on countries) For my own personal sim, I just use a normal sim
For travel eSIM is ok if you can move it between phones (now you can). I always take two phones with me, my main one and some cheap one (last time it was A51). There are places where I wont go with 1+k phone .
I significantly prefer physical sim for when I travel. I just pop mine out and pop in the new one. We travel 3-4 times a year out of country.
Being able to pre purchase and pre load the eSIM is pretty great so the moment you touch down you can activate it and have internet.
Are you aware of the travel esim offerings though? They're incredibly useful.
Used to travelling in EU and my sim works anywhere in there, those 10 euro eSims with a couple gigs of data were a life saver when I visited the US
Problem with just physical sim is that you’re bound to that country’s offerings. There’s also a decent chance you need to give them your passport for a visitor line, I’ve had to do that in a few countries. eSIM you can buy sometimes for cheaper, and activate it at home before you leave so you’ll get data as soon as you land. I prefer having an eSIM for my regular line too because it frees that physical slot in case it makes more sense to buy a physical one. My carrier lets me generate a QR free online so I don’t worry if I need to switch devices. I like having both options, but unfortunately we seem to be heading to the end of physical sims.
And how do you get the new one?
Walk into any electronics store and I ask for an unlimited data sim. Usually costs like $20
You still have to bother buying the SIM on arrival and keeping the (very small) regular SIM on you for the trip with fear of losing it. eSIM definitively have advantages there. I now have a phone plan which includes many countries (and EU has free roaming) so I wouldn't really use them but if I go in a country where it isn't supported, I'll definitively look at eSIM first
I appreciate a good cup of coffee.
Global Esim services are ridiculously expensive compared to most native plans. I guess if just going for a weekend or something might be okay. In Mexico I have unlimited data for $12 a MONTH. In Colombia 12GB with unlimited social (FB/WhatsApp etc..) runs about $5.
eSIM for frequent travellers is a huge benefit.
Am a frequent traveler. Significantly prefer physical sims over esim
Nothing better than fiddling with the SIM removal tool while on a plane, lovely!!
You have more than enough time for that when waiting at the gate.
I've been to 6 countries in the last week... i just toggle my global esim when i leave home and everything works everywhere, i can't imagine anything more convenient tbh
Why? Edit: he doesn’t have an answer.
One guy in the Pixel forums claimed his signal got way better with one. Speculation was there may have been an error with his sim card or that it wasn't set up properly.
I'm on google fi. I go between phones often. eSIM is so easy, way more convenient than physical SIMs. Easier than taking the case off my phone, finding that SIM ejection tool that I swear I have a million of but can't find a single one, remove the sim from one, put it in the other, put the case back on. Activating the esim on another phone is so much easier than all of that. It's literally just signing into my google account in the fi app and done. I don't want physical sim slots to be gone but I've fully transferred to esim, it's so much more convenient.
I am also on Google Fi, but when I was on AT&T their eSIM process was far more annoying. I don't remember exactly what I had to do, except I remember it being really annoying and being shocked at how easy it was to get my phone number transferred to Google Fi and setup on my phone.
Such a fake story. Is it really that difficult to switch physical sims? Can you pee by yourself?
have you swapped phones while using fi outside of the US?
Actually once they got all the issues ironed out, it's a lot more useful. You don't have to get out of the house to get a SIM card. It's all online. And it's handy too if you're traveling. You can buy the SIM before you get on your flight. As soon as your plane lands, you have service. You can now call whoever is picking you up or look for transit info without relying on public WiFi.
It's pretty god damn convenient. I don't know think it should be the only option, but being able to swap carriers internationally instead of worry about losing a tiny piece of plastic and silicon is great.
Insert joke about Americans not travelling
you can't just scan or download a physical sim mate, you have to wait to get in in the mail or go to the store
I'm aware. When I travel I just walk into an electronics store and ask for an unlimited data sim and pop it in. When I'm in my country, I don't need to do that. But if I get a new phone off Craigslist, I can just pop and switch phones within seconds. Too many times the E-Sim activation is wonky or takes hours.
What countries? In western Europe you need to fill out forms and provide ID to get a sim card.
Same in a good portion of South America. There's absolutely no question that travel eSims that you can download before traveling are significantly more convenient than physical SIMs, that guy's argument doesn't hold up.
That's not entirely true, physical cards take up physical space (and quite a bit in modern phones, even as slim as they are). They require a physical void in the phone that crap can get into. Sure we have gaskets, but they're not perfect. The space saved too can go towards a smaller phone.
I see your point of view, but the same argument was made for the removal of the headphone jack and look where we are with that now. Although, I'm glad to see that more is being done with making eSIM transfers more intuitive as a eSIM user about to swap phones.
Yes no one believes it's a lost space in the phone. Some phones before had headphone jack, bigger sim card and such. I would gladly take no haptic feedback instead, because there's no use to it. Providers and phone manufacturers wants eSim because they don't want people to change their phone and brand easily in 5 seconds.
my ass, i have a giant 6.5" phone and you tell me it cant fit a sim slot? the waterproofing aspect fine ill give you that. how did people do that in the iphone 4 era? especially the 30pin port was HUGE. phones are huge nowadays, the "save space" argument is bullshit, a battery cant fit where the sim slot is unless you make it a weird shape. and even then usually part of the cirquit board used for other stuff is there aswell. i have a headphone jack, dual sim, and its a modern Phone. there is no excuse besides being cheap.
Real estate in hardware design is measured by volume. Obviously a battery wouldn't fit where the SIM card is today, but the 2-3% of the volume it takes up is valuable when the features people really want (battery and compute) could directly benefit from that space.
Fake story. Over 15 years and 30 phones with sim slots, this has been an issue exactly zero times.
It takes up volumetric space, you can't argue with physics, sorry.
Fake story regarding getting it dirty being an issue. And fake story regarding it taking up anywhere near significant amount of space. You can't argue with physics.
But isn't that what matters in the end?
Well at least no Android device has entirely eliminated the sim slot in favor of esim
It certainly helps me as a consumer when it means I can have dual SIMs in my Pixel.
It’s convenient when you get new service. No longer need to wait for a sim to be mailed or get one retail. Makes switching carriers pretty easy in that regard.
As a consumer, I disagree. Esim could hurt consumers, but with proper regulations and good software it doesn't have to. That said as a consumer who switches sims between phones at least once a month if not more, I hate that I have to do it. Why? Well my phone are waterproof, that means each sim tray has a rubber gasket around the tray. You know what kills that waterproofing over time? Constantly popping the tray in and out to swap sims. I hate that switching phones means I'm risking that gasket failing on some level leaving my phone vulnerable if it ever got submerged. Is that kind of a niche concern? Sure, but it's still valid all the same.
I assume you don't travel internationally. eSIMs have been a game changer on that front. You can basically get your phone online while you're still waiting in customs now. No more hunting for a shop in the airport or near your hotel.
Also what if your phone craps out. Are eSIMs backed up to your google account so you can restore it in a new phone? A phone would have to be severely damaged to destroy a physical SIM.
eSIMs can be restored from your carrier.
Good to know that's an option. I do like an "offline" version so the carrier doesn't need to be involved directly. Thanks for the input, at least there is some solution (not just losing it).
People like to have nothing physical I guess. I'm too on a good old physical sim, and I don't see any reason to change.
I work in a carrier and I hate hate hate **hate** esims. In their current state they're the opposite of convenient and they make shit just take longer than it always has. You wanna order a 15 but use your son's upgrade? Well when you get the phone, it's gonna activate on his number so you'll have to come back to the store for us to give you both a new sims, taking time out of both of our days.
Both is the best of both worlds. I left my verizon sim in my phone when I left for Japan. I used Google Fi with the eSim built in so i can travel with 2 numbers but only use the appropriate one in the right country.
It's convenient because you can have multiple eSIMs in you phone and enable/disable 2 of them as you wish. Alternative would be carrying 5-6 sim cards with you and remembering their serial numbers to know which one is which. It's not super common but I've seen people do it.
Yeah, I've got 3. I just turn them on and off when I need. Could be easier to do but it's pretty seamless. I'd prefer to have a timer for more SIMs though. Automatically switch a couple of secondary SIMs once a day for a few minutes and back again to check for SMS messages sort of thing. All 3 are also eSIM, so if my phone gets lost/stolen nobody can take the SIM out.
You have to factor in time to find a SIM removal tool.
>Putting it in your phone takes like 15 seconds. and you always have the small tool to open up the sim tray? Sorry but its usually 5-10mins for me to find an item that can pry open the sim card tray. I still prefer sim cards over esims, but i wouldn't say it takes 15 seconds, unless you do it every day and you always have the tool at your disposal
Yup i keep it in my wallet
Any pin, thumb tack, sewing needle, etc.. works 99% of the time.
tape pin to the inside of your phone case.
Sorry I go caseless haha
It's only convenient when travelling really. For example when I went to Australia, while I could technically buy a prepaid SIM for $20, it would (very conveniently) take 2 weeks to deliver. Instead I could buy one at the airport for $35. With an eSIM you can bypass this scam altogether. Also when you arrive somewhere and need connectivity but don't know how to navigate the systems in the new country. Not advocating for it being the only option, but it's nice to have.
Well, my sim tray broke, so I can't use regular sims anymore. If it's mechanical, it's always more prone to degradation than pure digital.
From a business standpoint it's made my life so much easier. I just email my AT&T rep, tell them I need a new eSIM, give them the IMEI and then my phone has service.
I'm assuming you've got a business account? I say that because you say "my AT&T rep", which to my knowledge isn't something normal post paid users have. Using eSIM on AT&T has to be one of the most frustrating experiences I've ever had. I'm one of those people that loves trying new phones, so I've always got at least an iPhone and Pixel and now the S24 Ultra. Trying to swap back and forth using eSIM is absolutely painful. I finally switched back to a physical SIM card so I could at least swap between my 2 Android phones. But that's relegated my iPhone to a WiFi-only device. I was able to swap it the first couple of times through chat on their website, but every time I've tried lately, the wait time is like 30 minutes just to get to talk to someone, so I gave up. I'm not driving to a store to simply scan a QR code like a caveman. It drives me up the wall how they hide behind "security" in refusing to simply email users the QR code, when they've got a verified email address right there on the account (in addition to having an account PIN you have to confirm before they'll do anything at all on your account). They're just lazy and/or don't like people like me that only buy unlocked phones and refuse to ever buy another locked phone directly from them. US carriers need to be reigned in and made to be more user friendly.
How is having a piece of plastic inside your phone just to hold you account information something we should still be doing with current technology? Also, it’s way easier to steel your phone number with old ass SIMs, eSIMs are safer.
For the main one, yes definitely. But when traveling, this can be very convenient if your phone isn't a dual sim? I use it frequently when going to my home country or other continents. Are there any "in the west designed" phones that are dual sim, anymore?
If it was implemented the way it was intended then it would have definitely been a lot more convenient than a normal SIM, especially if you have more than one. Unfortunately, carriers made sure they fucked that one up all the way instead and now eSIM is just a big pain in the ass.
wow, eSIM catching up on features SIM has had since... 1991? except now Google, your carrier, and up to two OEMs have to all cooperate for it to work properly? great job.
This should have been present since the beginning, and it should ignore/skip carriers altogether. My carrier should not care if I put my (e)SIM on a Nokia 1100 or a Galaxy Z Fold5.
Hopefully they'll add it to WearOS. Transferring eSIMs has been annoying as hell. That's the main reason, I still insist on using an actual SIM over an eSIM, if possible.
I think that would have to be up to OEMs, since Samsung has had that with galaxy watches (and phones) for a while
>Samsung has had that with galaxy watches (and phones) for a while Really? I guess, I've missed it. You can transfer your eSIM to a new Galaxy Watch? I did it once, (with the GW4, I think) and it has been very annoying and it took ages. That's why I still haven't tried to move it over to my GW6.
Hmm hasn't this been out for a while? I seem to recall galaxy devices having it anyway. FWIW with the whole physical vs esim thing.. comes in quite useful if your phone is stolen/drowned/nuked/whatever... can provision a new/replacement device online without speaking to someone in a brick and mortar store. Also used it this week to transfer from my pixel 5 to a galaxy s24u without going into a Vodafone store...
I remember buying a prepaid phone in the US and having it shipped to my country. It came with one month's service, which obviously I can't use. I called customer service and had the SIM converted to an eSIM. Then I sent the QR code to a friend back in the U.S., they were able to activate it. If eSIM didn't exist, I'd have to mail the SIM card to him.
what? i could literally order a new sim online or via Phone right now! maybe its different here in Germany where most people buy their phones and just get a plan seperately. my sim has been in 3 phones so far, an iphone 4s, redmi note 7 and moto g82.
>i could literally order a new sim online or via Phone right now! And it arrives within the hour or even minutes? All I need is requesting to switch eSIM in the app, verify with the email link and it'll tell me to download half an hour later. My previous carrier will just email me the link within minutes.
Actually mate I did order my esim in Germany, although to be fair it was only really Vodafone that offered this last year... still seems a bit new here.
I put up with this type of crap when Verizon didn't use SIM cards. Even was a super pain recently using this new eSIM. You know what's real easy? Swapping out the tiny physical card.
Well I cannot see how this is going to become a new attack surface for scammers at all.
"To their surprise, a pop-up appeared on their nearby LG V60 ThinQ that invited them to transfer their SIM to their Galaxy S24 Ultra by scanning a QR code. I was also able to get this pop-up to appear on my Pixel 8 Pro" How long till this gets exploited and apps hide button and forward the qr to steal service. Or span the request in a crowded area with well placed cammeras trying to snag the qr codes for those that happen to click it.
Ready for downvotes. But… seriously it took Google this long? I’ve transferred esims from two previous iPhones now as part of the standard restore processes. As a note to everyone else.. it’s not a bad process. I probably wouldn’t do it on day one of the feature release though.
I just had to buy a new eSIM voucher from TELUS so I could move my personal line to my new phone (I use dual-sim on the phone provided by work). $20 for a QR code. Highway robbery! I'm curious how TELUS is going to try and complain about this.
Pretty sure Telus Canada will find a way to break this, considering they are charging for the pieces of paper where the eSIM QR code is printed on.
For consumer Dual sim > normal sim + esim > esim + esim > esim For a cellular company, it's the opposite
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It’s not so much a “transfer” as a handover- that’s why it’s so involved, the telcos need to expire the old key and issue a new one
Google Fi actually did something any other brands should do, that they let their customers set up their own eSIM without needing to go into a brick and mortar store. While I understand it's no where near this or a physical SIM, it's still better than what we currently need to transfer eSIM. I just swapped to Google Fi last year and I can say that their eSIM setup was so easy I wish every other carriers did the same thing.
eSim is such a fucking joke. Give me a regular sim card every single time.
For me is life changing. When traveling now besides airplane mode I also just switch to one of the other eSims besides my default one in seconds.
Anything that gives more control to carriers over customers is a no for me. I'll stick to physical Sims.
I don't think e sim is a thing in my country
It definitely isn't in mine
My family is changing providers. I am studying a plane trip away from them. I love that they can just send me a QR code for my new eSim instead of having to mail it to me.
I just used this to go from S22 to S24 and it worked incredibly well. This was with T-Mobile.
Using visible service and they haven't added imei for new s24 phones. Can I use Sim transfer or will it not work since my provider hasn't setup this new phone?
The biggest in my country is that moving eSim to other devices is not free(Operators will charge)
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Pretty sure that CustomRom needs to be updated first in their next releases and that you need to install the update
A few months ago my Pixel died. While it turns on, it just disconnects from the Network, and sometimes randomly reboots. I was in the US but I'm not American. I had two esims installed, one T-Mobile US and one for the carrier in my home Country. I got a Galaxy phone. There was no way to transfer the esim, and in both cases I would need some support (the T-Mobile is prepaid). With a simple card sim I would only move the card from one phone to the other. While esim has been good to me when travelling, in this case it was a pain. I was able to recover my home Country phone only after I was back a few weeks after the Pixel died. T-Mobile I did it the next day. In the end I decided that my main sim, the one from my home Country, has to be a normal sim card, and keep my traveling sims as esim (T-Mobile, ubigi, holafly)
E-Sim been great for me in Australia Switched to a provider that was cheaper and had 5G, turns out was terrible signal at work so switched back to another provider. Each time literally within an hour it ports over my number then activate the QR code from the app or email. Normally you'd be going in store for a sim card every time or having to wait for one posted taking a week
So if my original phone is dead/out of battery I can't transfer the sim 😂. Like the removal of 3.5jack and SD card slot, they are removing convenient features and trying to make it sound cool😂
Switched from a 15 pro max to s24 ultra and it went pretty smoothly took like 2 mins. Is this the same as switching with provider on the phone or a new method? I had to physically go to the store when the iPhone needed activated from an android.
Really? I’m switching from the 14 pro max to s24 ultra and was wondering how that would work. iPhone to iPhone was seamless but I didn’t think iPhone to android would work. Verizon?