Please stop following in Apple's footsteps

After years of eSim, wanting eSim, asking for nothing but eSim, I'm done with eSim. Having an argument with a T-Mobile rep in store on whether or not my Pixel 7 has an eSim made me no longer want eSim. I want my phone and its service to be as self service as possible, and managing my own sim seems to be my best option.

Why do Android manufacturers keep turning their phones into iPhones? If I wanted an iPhone, I'd buy one.

To setup an esim you need google framework and play installed (grapheneos is out, except you install Google)

This is the idea behind... More control

Do people not remember how fucking annoying this shit was before physical SIM cards? Who in the ever loving fuck is asking for this??

TIL apple doesn't have Sim slot.

Pretty sure its a nothing burger.

Considering majority of the planet doesn't have access to esim. Google just cut off a huge chunk of its markets. I've been waiting on esims for years. They are slowly creeping out but they don't work on all networks and don't work on pay as you go plans.

Think you'd need esim to be much more established before you tried anything like this.

BT headphones had become pretty normal by the time they started removing the jack. You can also get an adapter to still use them. No slot for sim would be incredibly bold and lose them a tonne of money.

Nae chance in hell.

Info is from a leak. C'mon

Apple has never been about having options. They have always believed that the customer doesn't know what they want. They enforce whatever they think is best, and provide no ways to change it.

Maybe I'm out of the loop but are eSIMs insecure or something? What's the problem? I started using eSIMs while traveling overseas and it been a game changer. So easy... No more swapping. No more trying to find a Sim provider at the airport etc.

why the hell do you need a plastic chip? its useless and redundant. get a username and password from the phone carrier and that's it. just like connecting to an ISP for example. why are people clinging to old technology for no reason.

Besides, phone carrier nowadays are exactly this: ISPs. they provide an IP and a bandwidth.

esims are neat tho

My favorite phone I've ever had was an LG. I had two easily switchable batteries for it and an external charger. It had an SD card slot and a headphone jack. It did everything I needed it to do, and it had very little bloatware. Hell, it's over decade old or something, and it still works just fine. In fact, last time I used it, the battery lasted longer than ever since it doesn't have a SIM card anymore, I rooted it and removed every unnecessary app, and it spends all its time in flight mode occasionally playing MP3s. I've no doubt if I fired it up tomorrow, it'd still work, though Google would certainly complain that it hasn't been updated 8 bajillion times in the interim. Every phone I've had since then (Google Nexus 6P, Samsung Galaxy Note 9, and now an S23 Ultra) has had a better camera, a little bigger screen resolution, and was worse in just about every other way.

Because fuck what people want amiright?

I mean of all the stupid shit to remove from a phone, why is the sim card THE big deal? I mean who the fuck cares? a SIM card is infrastructure dependent inherently, it is just a token for a network! What is the problem of storing the token for a network digitally. The SD slot and the headphone jack, Yeah those are useful. But the SIM slot? I don't get it.

This started when we lost swappable batteries and it never stopped. Will never get over it either.

I remember being very happy that pixels went from 3 year support to 5. But then they got rid of the headphone jack, so I never bought it. Seems to have been the right choice.

Well, I guess that rules out the Pixel 8 as my next phone. My telecom, as with most in my country, only issues eSIMs to phones that they officially support - in other words, Samsung Galaxy phones and iPhones only.

Since physical sims are well physical items. They create ewaste. Whereas esim which is not a physical item, doesn't.

Just embrace better technology

If you buy this pixel from Verizon, and use it as trade in for, say, samsung phone via their website, how are you supposed to get Sim service switched? You don't have Verizons phone (because you sent it to them), and your new phone doesn't have service (because they sell you a blank unlocked phone), nor is it connected to Verizons towers. You're going to be....expected to go to verizon? Use someone else's phone?

Like using someone else's car at the dmv for driving tests, it's horribly reliant on external factors and is fuckin' duuuuumb

As someone who switches between my iPhone and Pixel regularly for fun, this would kinda be a dealbreaker

I wanna know what the benefits and drawbacks are of esims?

Whyyyyy

There was that news article just the other day that some obnoxiously high percentage of youth (80%?) wanted iPhones over Android devices. There is a reason why every other phone company copies Apple and it isn't just because it is cheaper to copy than be original - Apple has a lock on the youth market. In this particular case, they are copying something not aesthetics/design related, but if you are going to copy one thing, you might as well copy everything that Apple does. Or at least that is what these companies believe they should so.

For now it's only a rumor based on leaked renders, it could be that the renders simply didn't have all the details. I'd be very surprised if Google really ditched physicals SIM cards as that would definitely hurt sales.

NONONONO

You can have a bunch of esims on one phone.

Oh, look more Lemmy users not understanding security, again. All because they hate big Apple and change because Apple did something is bad.

I am convinced Lemmy users are more prone to let their bias get in the way of actually understanding the benefits of this change and the reason this is going away.

If you want to educate yourself.

https://darknetdiaries.com/transcript/118/

If you want a summary because you don't want to listen to a podcast or read the transcript of a podcast. There is a lot of theft occurring at the SIM card level in phones. This change is a bigger benefit than it is a negative. Is it annoying? Sure? Does it change how the phone functions? No.

Most phones can't dual SIM, and phones that do typically have issues. I am convinced this will quite literally not affect any of you, and if anything it protects the average consumer.

Pixel and iPhone have been doing eSIM for a while and I personally use a Google Fi number and First Net number. If you are wondering how the number transfer process will work then here is another article about how that is going to be handled: https://www.droid-life.com/2023/08/22/first-look-at-androids-native-esim-transfer-tool/

This means no one can just take your SIM card. They need to fully get into your phone. If you are worried about number transfer from telecom company to telecom company then you should know that is also already being handled and both Verizon and AT&T have implemented this change to their systems. You just transfer the number like normal and the systems generate an eSIM for you.

This is a win for security of your phone, you, and for your number.

Brought a 8849 tank 2 by unihertz which has a dual Sim card slot with a SD card slot.... I don't understand this trend of removing things from phones

How will all those Russian spies ever get to use all those copies of Sims 3 now?

I would actually prefer this tbh. I setup my sim card for a new mobile plan from their app instantly. I couldn't do that with sim and would have to wait for them to ship. Unless you swap phones often, it's pretty much a lot better.

My pixel 4a is already like this after the cheap plastic sim tray broke. 🤷

Image Transcription:

A close-up of the side of a Google Pixel 8 with a UK O2 SIM card next to it and the SIM card holder next to that. The text added underneath by user Gizmodo reads: Google Pixel 8 Could Eliminate the SIM Slot, Just Like the iPhone

[I am a human, if I’ve made a mistake please let me know. Please consider providing alt-text for ease of use. Thank you. 💜]

Oh great. So basically leaving me with no dual sim options (I live in a country where esim is not available yet.) Basically pushing me to Samsung. Nice work Google.

Pixel 8? I thought we were on Pixel 5.

This is probably to make carrier locking even easier let's be honest. Remove all control from the customer.

At this point I dunno anymore why they sell the way they do. Sure, hardware is really great. But the OS is lagging behind Android, CoreAudio aside. Apps are fine if you work around iOS's limitations. Still people really like the ecosystem or are they poor brand followers? Dunno.

This article is speculation from August. Pixel 8 has since been released and has a sim slot.

That is kind of the point of the Pixel. To be the iPhone of Android.

Or just accept a better technology.

Omg how surprising. I definitely didn't see that coming.

Should I be saving up my extra sims? I’ve been throwing them away and now I feel I should’ve held onto them for a potential sim sacristy

Great news!

If I don't have a SIM card slot, how do I plan on using my phone to.... oh I don't know, use a mobile phone network?

And how exactly will I swap between networks at will, by swapping SIMs, if I can't swap SIMs?

Ridiculous.

I don't understand why people cling on to crap, probably better me posting in unpopularopinion... but I just don't understand why people want a headphone jack, removable battery, SD card slot, SIM slot etc. I actively look to purchase phones that don't have this.

I recently bought a new phone and I'm quite frustrated that it doesn't have esim support. As others have mentioned, it'd make using your phone abroad so much easier. Surely in 2023 a physical SIM just shouldn't be needed any more...

Boy, you people will go out of your way to really bitch incessantly about anything and everything.