Ask HN: What's Your Experience with eSIMs?

That's not specific to eSIMs, that is an iMessage issue. Having done this recently myself (just got home yesterday from a trip to the UK), my recommendation for anyone about to travel with an iPhone is to get a data-only eSIM that works in your destination country, then toggle off roaming on your primary line and make sure WiFi calling is enabled. If the phone asks to add a new number to your iMessage, refuse. Then your phone just works like normal, including iMessage, but without the roaming charges.

Oh, and if my experience is typical, don't go with O2 in the UK. I was disappointed in both the coverage and the performance. Even in London proper it was frequently crappy.

I purchased the iPhone 14 right when it was released. In the US it seemed like some of the carriers were not prepared yet still offered the phone for purchase.

There was this issue where I wouldn't receive any texts or voicemails due to the number being ported over to eSIM. The worst thing is that nobody who worked for the carrier had any clue either, there was zero acknowledgement that there was an issue going around.

I had to spend a day reading through the forum posts, which there were a bunch, and someone wrote about their experience and suggested to talk to the tech but mention specific things something like "reauthorize the device", and finally got it to work. Similar issue happened to a friend on a different carrier but their employees actually knew about the issue and solved it with a single trip to the store.

I wouldn't really blame this issue on the technology but just incompetence from the carrier made the eSIM transition a nightmare, I really don't get why they bothered to offer the iPhones in the first place if their tech is still playing catch up.

> Apple is considering going all eSIM, on future phones

Already there. My iPhone 15PM does not have a SIM slot, and I think that is true for the entire iPhone 15 lineup.

Can't say that I've had a bad experience. Love eSIMs!

In my iPhone I have one physical SIM for my private number and an eSIM for my business number. Works great. When traveling I disable the business number and instead use Airalo.

So far it's much more pleasant than a "real" SIM, especially when traveling. No hassle of getting a card etc.

Mint charges for eSIM provisioning when changing > 2 times per year.

Also, ensure that you have a backup plan to reset your password.

For example, to reset your password on Mint, they send you a text. What happens when you don't have a SIM? You're stuck.