New findings suggest that Android devices may soon be able to include your SIM in a device backup, potentially making it that much easier to swap phones.
Device backups currently save things such as your app list, contacts, SMS/MMS/RCS messages, call history, and some device settings as well. Combined with Google Photos for photo/video backup, that makes it easier to swap phones, especially in the case that your previous device is lost, stolen, or broken.
Google is apparently looking to extend on this, with new findings in Play Services suggesting that your SIM could be backed up to your Google account for use on a future Android device. Code was spotted and then enabled by Android Authority, showing that Google’s services would be able to “back up contacts, call history, device settings, apps & app data, SMS & MMS messages, and SIMs…”
This is very likely referring to eSIM rather than a physical SIM card, but the utility here is obvious. Google is already working to make it easier to transfer an eSIM between devices, and the ability to back that SIM up would just make things all the more painless when restoring from a device you no longer have access to.
There are still a lot of questions around how SIM backup on Android would work, including how carriers would be involved, but it’s a nice idea. As for when it might be implemented, that’s not remotely clear either.
More on Android:
- Google hosting ‘Android Show’ with ‘exciting updates’ before I/O 2025
- Google says Android’s Find My Device network is 4x faster, teases UWB ‘very soon’
- The big yearly Android upgrade doesn’t matter all that much now [Video]
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