How to install an eSIM in under 90 seconds

An eSIM is just a SIM card delivered as software. There is no tray, no paperclip, no tiny plastic square to lose in a hotel room. What trips people up is not difficulty — it is that the three steps live in three different corners of the settings app.

Here they are in order.

Video landing soon

1. 0:00What you need before you start
2. 0:21iPhone: scan and label
3. 1:04Android: scan and label
4. 1:38Switching data without losing your number
5. 2:02If it says 'No Service'

Before you start

• You are on Wi-Fi (you cannot install an eSIM over the eSIM you are installing)
• Your phone is unlocked to all networks — carrier-locked handsets will refuse the profile
• You have the QR code open on a second screen, or saved as an image
• You have about 90 seconds and are not standing in an immigration queue

The three steps

1. 1

   Scan the QR code

   iPhone: Settings → Cellular → Add eSIM → Use QR Code.

   Android: Settings → Network & internet → SIMs → + → Download a SIM instead?

   Point the camera at the code and let it read. If you only have the code as an image on the same phone, both platforms let you enter the activation details manually — look for Enter Details Manually on iPhone, or Need help? on Android.

2. 2

   Name the line something you'll recognise

   Your phone will offer labels like Secondary or Business. Ignore them and use the destination: Japan Data, UAE Data, Thailand Data.

   This sounds cosmetic. It is not. Two weeks and three countries later, "Secondary" tells you nothing, and you will be guessing which line to switch off while your data meter runs.

3. 3

   Switch data over — and only data

   This is the step that decides whether you saved any money.

   • Set Cellular Data (iPhone) or Mobile data (Android) to the new travel line.
   • Leave calls and SMS on your original line, so your number keeps working.
   • Turn Data Roaming ON for the travel line. It sounds wrong. It is required: the eSIM is a foreign profile, so using it in the destination country technically counts as roaming, at local rates.
   • Turn Data Roaming OFF for your home line, so it cannot quietly bill you in the background.

Nine out of ten "my eSIM doesn't work" messages are step three, half-finished.

The five mistakes

1. Data roaming left off for the travel line. The single most common one. The profile installs, shows up, and refuses to carry a byte. Turn it on for that line.

2. Data line never switched. The eSIM is installed and idle while your home carrier roams merrily at day-pass rates. Check which line has the data toggle.

3. Testing it at home. The profile has no coverage in your own country. No Service before you fly is expected behaviour, not a fault.

4. Deleting the profile "to start again". Do not. An eSIM profile can normally be installed once. Deleting it usually means the QR code will not work a second time. Toggle the line off instead of removing it.

5. Screenshotting the QR code and deleting the email. Keep the email. It holds the manual activation details you will need if the camera scan fails, and it is your record if support has to look the order up.

Which phones can do this

Broadly: iPhone XS and newer, Pixel 3 and newer, Galaxy S20 and newer. Most flagships from 2019 onwards, and most mid-range phones from 2022 onwards.

The exceptions are regional rather than technical. Some handsets sold in mainland China ship without eSIM hardware, and a few Japanese carrier variants disable it. Check your exact model number rather than the family name — "iPhone 13" is not one device worldwide.

A quick test that costs nothing: open the Add eSIM screen described in step one. If it exists, you are ready.

Read this next

Worth knowing what you are saving before you set it up: what a travel eSIM actually costs versus roaming, priced across the same 10-day trip.