Apple once again was the first to push the industry in a new direction. The companyremoved the physical SIM card slot from its latest iPhonesin the US, forcing customers and carriers to adopt eSIM faster than they might like. It looks like Google is also preparing for an eSIM-first reality, with hidden settings in theAndroid 14 Developer Preview 1showing that the company might add an option to convert a physical SIM card to eSIM.
In an upcoming version of the settings app, Android expert Mishaal Rahman discovered a new option to “Convert to eSIM.” The page that accompanies this option doesn’t seem to be finished yet, as the text appears in the search interface rather than in a dedicated menu. Mishaal Rahman additionally says that Android 14 also preps an option to transfer eSIMs between different devices, though this isn’t shown on screen.
The new setting option doesn’t work by itself, though. It needs additional resources. Mishaal Rahman spotted those in the pre-installed SIM Manager app, which Pixel phones use for various SIM and network-related features in the background. These resourceshave been added as early as Android 13 QPR2 Beta 2, though that older release seems to be lacking the accompanying system settings options.
As for turning SIM into eSIM, Rahman makes clear that this won’t be possible for each and every SIM card out there. Carriers will have to support activating these newly created eSIMs, so it might take a while until it’s a broadly supported option. Transferring eSIM across devices isn’t part of the the native eSIM spec, either, so it remains to be seen whether it will only work across Pixel phones or more Android phones. A similar problem is affecting iPhones, which are capable of transferring eSIMs from iPhone to iPhone, but not to Android and vice versa.
If you want to learn more about Android 14, check outeverything that’s new in the upcoming Android release. And should you want to get your hands dirty yourself, you may also learnhow to install Android 14 Developer Preview 1on your own phone.
