Top 7 problems with dual SIM in iOS 13
As soon as I heard that iPhone XS will have dual SIM capabilities, I got excited with the prospect of ridding myself from my work iPhone SE and upgrading my personal phone from X to XS. I checked the basic functionalities and just assumed that “OK, it’s Apple, I’m sure they’ve thought of everything”. Well, there are a few discrepancies. Here are seven of the most prominent ones.
Note that not all of these are directly related to having two SIMs in one phone, some of them are general issues related to the Apple ecosystem and Apple IDs.
1. Two Apple IDs
When I was using two phones, I also had two Apple IDs. This presented a problem, since even though I can add a second Apple ID, it can’t use most of the features, and is instead restricted to mail, contacts, calendar etc.
Therefore, I had to rebuy some apps that I didn’t already use on my personal account. This was more of an inconvenience since most of the apps I use are either free or very affordable. Now that there is profile support for tvOS, hopefully, we will get it on iOS and iPadOS soon as well!
2. Messages and FaceTime
Since there are two SIMs in the phone, there are also two possible numbers to send SMS messages from. However, this can’t be changed on the fly, and there’s no way to check which number is set as default except from the Settings. This means a lot of unnecessary back and forth between Messages and Settings.
The same behavior is replicated in FaceTime. Unlike regular calls, which can be dialled out from either number ad-hoc, FaceTime expects me to set the outgoing number/email in Settings.
3. Contacts
Due to having both work and personal contacts in the phone, I’d need a way to save contacts to my work account, but unfortunately, iOS only saves contacts to the primary Apple ID. This means that adding or editing work contacts quickly isn’t possible, I need to either use the web UI of my Google account, or use the Contacts app on my work Mac, or the contacts end up in the wrong account.
4. Continuity & Sidecar
Since there are two separate Apple IDs, they won’t play together very nicely. For example, Continuity will not work at all with my work Mac, since the primary Apple ID on my phone is my personal Apple ID. Changing the primary Apple ID on my phone is not feasible, because there are a lot more apps purchased with my personal account than with my work ID.
On a slightly unrelated note, I recently bought an iPad Pro and wanted to test out the Sidecar feature with my work Mac. I assumed that the connection was similar to Airplay, but it’s tied to a specific Apple ID, so no Sidecar for work. Also, my personal Mac is an older Air (2014-ish?) and doesn’t support Sidecar, so I still haven’t tested how it works.
5. Apps tied to phone numbers
Some communication apps, like Whatsapp, are tied to one phone number. As far as I know, Android has third-party apps that can run in parallel with the official app and take care of the secondary account. On iPhone, there’s no such selection of unofficial apps, and the official apps are not (at least as of writing this) compatible with two accounts. I seriously hope this changes soon, it’s been months since I’ve checked the Whatsapp messages on my work number.
6. Call waiting on inactive SIM
Since the iPhone XS has only one active radio at a time, only one SIM can be connected when in a call. This causes the other line to appear disconnected when in a call with the other line. This would mean not receiving notifications of missed calls, but thankfully there’s a solution for this: Wi-Fi calling. I have enabled Wi-Fi calling on one of my lines, and most of the time when I’m in a call with my work line, my personal line automatically connects to the Wi-Fi and routes calls over it. However, the connection is not permanent. When there are no ongoing calls, the connection reverts back to the cell network. This means that if I’m in a call on my personal line, it’s not routed over Wi-Fi, and therefore my work line is offline. I wish there was an option to use the Wi-Fi connection as the default instead of the fallback.
7. Separate personal and business billing details
Since I need to use one single Apple ID to purchase all apps, I’d appreciate it if there was a possibility to enter multiple different payment methods and select the method to use per purchase and subscription. Let’s say that I need an app for work. I change the billing details to my work credit card and buy the app, and at the same time my Apple Music subscription decides to renew itself from the wrong card. That’s really easy to justify to the accountants!
That all being said, I’m not in a terrible hurry to switch back to two phones or to a different ecosystem. These are just minor annoyances compared to the usual fluidity and user experience on iOS. I’m pretty confident that the next major version will be a huge improvement with regards to dual SIM support, but I’m not equally confident that the problem with two Apple IDs will be resolved so quickly.
