Megan Ellis / Android Authority
I’ve used Google Fi for almost three years now, and it’s been mostly smooth sailing. Although Google doesn’t promote its cellular services very much, it has slowly but surely released updates that continue to improve the service, all while keeping prices relatively competitive. There is plenty to love about Google’s offering in a competitive market, but one quirk has me considering other options.
Have you tried Google's wireless service? 81 votes Yes, I'm currently using it and like it 63 % Yes, but I'm looking at other options 7 % I tried it in the past, but now I use something else 23 % Since when did Google have a wireless service? 6 %
What’s the point of dual-SIM support if you can’t actually use it? I know a decent number of people who use two different phone numbers. Usually, one is for work and one is for their personal life. I get that this is likely a small number of users compared to the overall customer base, but this is exactly the case for me, and both of these numbers are connected to Fi’s services. For a long time, I’ve had my work phone number on an old phone and my personal phone number on my Google Pixel, but I recently attempted to switch the work number to my Pixel in order to consolidate my devices down to just one.
When I tried to make this switch, I discovered what would become my sole frustration with Google Fi: you can not take advantage of your phone’s dual-SIM capabilities if both phone numbers are on Fi. I’ve not tried this on a different carrier, so perhaps this is a broader issue, but based on Google’s support forums, the problem is that you can only link one phone number per email address, and because you can only log into one Fi account per device, you aren’t able to use two Fi phone numbers on the same device.
Google Fi Wireless Community You'll find the same question and response about dual-sim support numerous times in the Google Fi Wireless Community Support forums.
So just to be clear, I’m using a Google phone — that supports dual SIM functionality! — and I’m using a Google cellular carrier, but the two Google products don’t actually work together for a feature built into Google’s phone. Huh…
What’s going on at Google?
I can’t say I’m entirely surprised by this predicament, unfortunately. Google is famous for dysfunctional organizational structures and misaligned management incentives — although an argument can be made that they’re getting better in this regard — so I’d have to guess this dual-SIM fiasco could be attributed to mismanagement. Google definitely has the engineering chops to make this work, which leads one to believe this is simply an oversight or a lack of prioritization compared to other projects.
I don’t want to use two separate carriers, but I might have to The only solution here would be to put my second phone number on an entirely different cellular carrier. Not only is this less cost effective, as phone plans typically get cheaper with each phone number you add to your plan, but it is also majorly inconvenient to deal with two separate carriers. This surely isn’t an issue that Google couldn’t solve, but perhaps it’s too niche of an issue for it to prioritize making this work properly. As it stands, I’ve continued to keep my work phone number on a separate device as I consider the second carrier solution.
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