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In a welcome change, Samsung ships the Galaxy S22 series with eSIM support out of the box in the US. This allows you to use two networks on the same phone simultaneously (with one physical SIM card) from the get-go, which opens up several possibilities. But unfortunately, the functionality is not available to Google Fi subscribers, at least not out of the box.
According to a 9to5Google report, the Google Fi app on the Samsung Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22+, or the Galaxy S22 Ultra currently doesn’t recognize that the phones support eSIM. As you can see in the screenshots attached below, the app asks you to insert a physical SIM card to use Google Fi services. You can place an order from within the app if you don’t already have one. eSIM is simply not an option here.
Thankfully, Samsung is working on enabling eSIM support for Google Fi on its Galaxy S22 flagships. A “Product Expert” on the Google Fi subreddit has confirmed that a software update for the devices will enable this functionality. It would be nice if the Korean brand also included a direct option for eSIM linking for various carriers in its software. Google’s Pixel series offers such a feature in the Settings menu.
More US-bound smartphones now offer the eSIM functionality
US-bound smartphones usually come with a singly physical SIM slot, while their global versions support two physical SIM cards simultaneously. Devices here have been slow to adopt the eSIM technology as well. But that’s gradually changing.
Samsung last year added eSIM functionality to its Galaxy S21 series flagships with the Android 12-based One UI 4.0 update. Both unlocked and carrier-locked variants of the phones gained the feature. The company has now taken things up a notch by offering the feature out of the box in its latest flagships. All three Galaxy S22 models have the feature enabled with the factory-build software.
But it appears some carrier services are still not supported via eSIM. Google Fi is the only carrier confirmed to lack eSIM support on Samsung’s Galaxy S22 series so far. But we wouldn’t be surprised if there are more.
Hopefully, the planned software update that will bring this functionality isn’t too far off. We will let you know when the rollout begins. Meanwhile, you might also want to keep the Google Fi app on your device updated. You can click the button below to download the latest version of the app from the Google Play Store.