I Switched to eSIM, and I Am Full of Regret

City: New York: Many people have used SIM cards for years. These tiny plastic cards hold your phone’s subscriber information. But now, phones are moving to eSIM. This change helps save space inside smartphones. Google recently made this switch with its new Pixel 10 phone series.

I was scared to change to eSIM. I finally had to do it to test Google’s latest phone, and now I regret it.

eSIM stands for “embedded SIM.” Unlike traditional SIM cards, eSIMs are built right into the phone. They take up less space, so companies can make slimmer devices. The first major phone to drop the SIM card was the iPhone 14. Google waited until this year to go all in with eSIM.

In past years, I switched physical SIM cards easily without issues. But since I switched to eSIM, I’ve faced a few annoyances. Twice, my phone number got stuck. When I needed help, contacting my carrier became tricky.

The first time I had trouble, I used my carrier’s app to get a new eSIM. It took a few minutes, but it worked out fine. The second time, I wasn’t logged in to the app and that made things difficult. Switching to eSIM wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.