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iPhone 11 Pro Drawbacks of moving main phone # to eSIM? iMessage & SMS won’t work??
- Thread starter Luba
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With iOS 12, you can only have 1 phone # on iMessage. The 2nd # will be SMS only. With iOS 13, both #s can receive and send iMessages.
I am on iOS 13.1 beta and iMessage on both lines work fantastically.
I would not move my main line to eSIM. You then have to get a new QR code every time you upgrade. And likely pay for that card.
That means when your new phone arrives it may not work until you get the new code. AND, you will probably need to call the carrier as well.
Huge waste of time if you ask me.
That means when your new phone arrives it may not work until you get the new code. AND, you will probably need to call the carrier as well.
Huge waste of time if you ask me.
So do you just physically move the physical SIM of your main number from your old phone to the new one? I'm planning on upgrading every year as I'm on the iUP.
HUGE? Moving the eSIM takes a handful of minutes AND it keeps the physical SIM free for low cost MVNO SIMS....Many of us feel it is worth the MINOR effort and handful of minutes to make it work. Not sure why anyone is PAYING for a card with a QR code on it........
Yes, that is exactly what I do. I never activate the new SIM that's in the phone. If ATT tries and charge me an upgrade fee I call and get it reversed because I did not activate a new SIM.
If you can get the carrier to send you the QR code card (they won't email). then perhaps. I had to use ATT to do it as the process was not clear (last year, the first year they offered eSIM). Now this year I want to upgrade. So I need a new code (which I don't think is free) and I need to have provisioned to the old account. If I use the SIM, I just swap...and that is only a minute to too.
So eSIM is a PIA.
I called Apple today and they say the folks in the Apple store can also take care of eSIM, but I don't think that is true. We'll see.
I travelled internationally last week, so two weeks ago moved my Verizon account to eSIM. I did it via support chat on their website and it took just a couple minutes - easy.
After that my SIM card slot was empty. I noticed no issues with calls/messages/facetime/etc.
When I travelled internationally last week, I was able to get a data only plan with 2GB for $6.50 USD with Digicel in the Caribbean
Worked waaaay better than Verizon's TravelPass had on past trips. Like night & day the speeds of using local carrier via their own SIM card vs roaming via Verizon TravelPass on the same carrier's (Digicel) network.
Whats nice is I can turn OFF either line - I turned off the eSIM with Verizon so there is no chance of me roaming and incurring Verizon's crazy rates and lousy service
After that my SIM card slot was empty. I noticed no issues with calls/messages/facetime/etc.
When I travelled internationally last week, I was able to get a data only plan with 2GB for $6.50 USD with Digicel in the Caribbean
Worked waaaay better than Verizon's TravelPass had on past trips. Like night & day the speeds of using local carrier via their own SIM card vs roaming via Verizon TravelPass on the same carrier's (Digicel) network.Whats nice is I can turn OFF either line - I turned off the eSIM with Verizon so there is no chance of me roaming and incurring Verizon's crazy rates and lousy service
Actually I’ve done the opposite. Kept my esim free so I can use gig sky and truphone esims when travelling. 
Never had a problem with eSIM on Verizon. I had it on my XS and when I completed my order on the 13th, they had already included the QR code on the order confirmation email. Took like 2 mins to get up and running.
I decided to go ahead and transfer today, waited about 10 minutes for a chat agent and got it provisioned. My WiFi calling and VoLTE now works. Seems like I was using an old SIM card.
For those of us who travel regularly, having the ability to pop in a SIM from whatever country we’re in with no affect on our main number is heaven sent.
The few minutes or even hour (if we run into tech issues) is worth it.
From the U.S. but I tried eSIM Truphone while in the U.S. for the fun of it and it was slow. What countries have you traveled to and used Gig sky or truphone? Were the speeds decent?Actually I’ve done the opposite. Kept my esim free so I can use gig sky and truphone esims when travelling.
just upgraded my phone and had to move the esim for my second line. Was a bit of a pain. Call the carrier. Get a QR code emailed to me. Add the esim. Doesn’t work. Call the carrier. Read them a very very long string of digits. Stay on hold a long time while they add my sim number to their backend systems. Took about an hour from start to finish to move the esim.
Physical sim requires 15 seconds.