Joe Maring / Android Authority
I’m no longer surprised when something disappears from a new phone. I watched removable batteries and headphone jacks disappear, and I didn’t really blink because they’d already been replaced by quicker charging and more reliable Bluetooth headphones.
Now, though, the SIM tray has become an endangered species, and I’m worried about growing pains. It still exists on Samsung’s Galaxy series and all of Motorola’s latest launches, but Apple and Google have started leaving it behind. As a reviewer, it’s starting to cause me all kinds of headaches, and something needs to change.
Here’s what it’s like to move an eSIM in 2025 and why it feels like I may as well get a computer science degree.
Have you run into issues transferring an eSIM profile? 16 votes Yes 56 % No 44 %
Verizon told me I could do this all on my own…
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
I won’t lie — I try to spend as much time as I can with a physical SIM in my phone. As I mentioned, it was easy enough to pop a card out of my Galaxy S25 Ultra and into my Motorola Razr Ultra. When I switch phones as often as I do, I want things to be as easy as possible. Unfortunately, moving eSIMs around just isn’t there yet — at least not in practice.
On paper, it should all be a breeze. Verizon says it has a simple pathway in the My Verizon app, and the Android setup process prompts me to set up cellular early in the process, too. However, as a reviewer, I don’t always add cellular during the first days of my testing period, which means I often lose the fastest route. Worse still, this only works effectively for Android-to-Android transfers, and it still fails about half the time.
If I have to loop in a Verizon representative to make a simple change, I'm probably not going to do it.
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