Carrying two phones is hard, but iOS 27 has a solution Android ought to copy

Most users carry only one phone in their pocket, and many even use two SIMs in the same phone to reduce how many phones they need to carry. That being said, there are a bunch of people (including us phone reviewers) who end up with two and sometimes even more phones in our pockets. Using the same phone number on these phones has been nearly impossible, and even handling two phones and switching between them is often a logistical nightmare by itself. With the iPhone Ultra foldable right around the corner, Apple might have a solution up its sleeve for this niche problem in the form of “iPhone Handoff,” and this is something that even Google should copy for Android.

iPhone Handoff: Phone number sharing between iPhones

iPhone Handoff was mentioned during WWDC 2026 on a slide listing a whole bunch of new features coming in iOS 27, but Apple didn’t share further details at the time. Now, MacRumors forum member pdfu spotted the feature in the latest iOS 27 beta 8 release, showcasing how Apple will soon allow users to seamlessly switch between two iPhones while sharing a single phone number and cellular plan across both devices.

iPhone Handoff will live in Settings > Cellular when it rolls out with iOS 27 stable, with the setup designating one iPhone as the main phone housing your primary eSIM, while a secondary companion iPhone receives an associated companion eSIM. Cellular settings remain centralized on the primary phone, while location sharing dynamically switches to whichever device is currently active.

While this feature is said to rely on carrier support (with T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom tipped to be early partners), it will seemingly eliminate the friction of manually swapping physical SIM/eSIMs or incurring duplicate carrier line fees just to carry a secondary or backup phone.

From the information available so far, iPhone Handoff appears to differ from Apple’s existing Continuity features, even if it becomes part of the broader umbrella when it is released.

Features like text message forwarding and FaceTime call relay only piggyback on an active host device over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. iPhone Handoff, by contrast, seems to operate natively at the network and eSIM level. If you leave your primary flagship phone switched off at home, your companion phone remains a fully standalone cellular device operating under your existing phone number.

How does this tie in with the iPhone Ultra launch, you ask? While the iPhone Ultra is expected to be impressive as Apple’s first foldable, it will still be a first-generation model for the company and may have caveats users might not expect from their primary iPhone (such as the absence of a good telephoto camera). Given the expectedly high price of the iPhone Ultra, it’s not far-fetched to imagine that these users may also keep an older iPhone flagship around as a spare phone. With the iPhone Handoff feature, Apple will enable these users to seamlessly switch between their phones, making the transition to a foldable experience much easier.

Google should also look to bring network handoff to Android

Network/SIM handoff may appear to be a niche feature on the surface, but to me, it makes a lot of sense on Android, especially given the diverse range of form factors for phones, tablets, and beyond.

For instance, users with the disposable income could realistically buy a camera-centric phone for regular use, but switch to a gaming phone for dedicated gaming nights or to a rugged phone for their adventure needs. You could even switch to a smaller flip phone for social evenings when you might be low on pocket space, and swap to a large foldable for your daily spreadsheet use.

Going beyond phones, imagine cellular-equipped Android gaming handhelds that could seamlessly take over from your phone, if you’re okay with getting interrupted with a call in the middle of your gaming session. It might even work out well if your secondary phone number could seamlessly hop between your tablet and your Googlebook, for instance, letting you get cellular data on whichever device you choose to carry for the occasion.

Depending on how it is implemented, it could also be helpful when you need to give your eSIM-equipped phone in for a repair and temporarily switch to a spare phone.

Of course, a lot of the specifics depend on how carriers play along. But if done well, this has the potential to make Android feel much more like a cohesive ecosystem — you pick up a device (phone, tablet, handheld, or laptop), and you’re good to go. With this, Android multi-device ownership could go from a headache to one of the platform’s biggest perks.