eSIM is still only convenient for carriers ➹

Ryan Whitwam’s piece on switching to eSIM is a good reminder that a lot of “modernization” is really just moving failure modes around, and seems like a great way to kick off 2026 since it mirrors my own past experiences: my Truphone/iPad “side quest”, and my broader worries about eSIM-only iPhones.

A physical SIM is dumb and boring, but that’s exactly why it works: when you need to swap devices, it’s a 30‑second hardware shuffle that doesn’t depend on carrier apps, backend state, or a support queue.

With eSIM, the swap becomes a workflow—and if it fails at the wrong time you can end up locked out of your own number (and everything that still treats SMS as a magic identity token), with the delightful resolution of “go to a store and wait”.

If eSIM-only phones are the future, carriers really need an account recovery story that does not default to “we’ll text the number you currently can’t receive texts on”…