I've used eSIMs [including an associated 'local' phone number] with my unlocked Samsung Galaxy S25 & S24 Ultras with Android 16 while traveling a few times in the last year. In these cases I disabled the physical SIM to avoid high charges (for calls, text & data--note that some of those happen for incoming calls/texts even if only the eSIM is specified as the preferred-default for all outgoing traffic). This disables the phone number that would normally be associated with my phone & Samsung account etc. So no, I can't just "leave the physical (and it's now-roaming phone number) SIM active" due to those expensive incoming calls & texts.
And then immediately ran into problems since Samsung apps don't get along with eSIMs...
--------- # Samsung Store (app) This app switches to the local language (not mine), with limited store app options, based on the phone number (and/or location?), rendering the Store app nearly useless. Even though my valid Samsung login is an email address & password that has *nothing* to do with a phone number.
--------- # Samsung Find (My Mobile) While using the eSIM, Samsung Find became useless. Even though Find worked fine at home with the physSIM, with the eSIM it didn't show the already linked People, who were now also using an eSIM, with local phone number + calls/text/data, wrongly showing them at my home address in my native country. Despite the fact they they are logged in to their phones, with their valid Google & Samsung accounts, at this foreign location. Find simply no longer works while each of the phone(s) is using eSIMs and the normal physSIM disabled, even with a valid cellular or WiFi connection.
--------- # Visual Voicemail app (from Samsung) Application version 20.1.00.17.
After I disabled the pSIM and enabled the eSIM, the in-use Visual Voicemail app icon vanished from the phone -- not just from the assorted active icon page(s) but even in the full app drawer.
Note that's there's no "download" option (from Google Play or the Samsung Store) for this green-icon Visual Voicemail app. I believe this is a Samsung app, not an app by my (MVNO, not one of the "big" main ones) cell carrier. It came pre-installed on my unlocked-as-purchased-directly-from-Samsung [not from any carrier] phone. I had no way to redownload it from the store(s). I did find & download an *.apk from a non-Samsung site but it refused to reinstall that way either.
Fortunately after I got back home, then reenabled the physSIM & disabled the eSIM, the Visual Voicemail app icon reappeared in the app drawer; it actually hadn't been deleted, just completely hidden. I had to restore the app icon to its previously assigned location on one of the main pages and reenable/activate it. After that it again worked with my MVNO carrier.
My solution for Samsung = stop ****ing around with the Visual Voicemail app, hiding it when you don't think it's applicable for a particular carrier. Just leave it alone on the phone. If it's not going to work, a message in-app saying it won't work with the current carrier & phone number is sufficient. And I don't think/know that you can know it *won't* work with the eSIM provider anyway.
======= Samsung & Android have a choice -- allow these things to work normally as expected, regardless of the active phone number (just use the valid login info!), or keep **** around and making the phone experience worse. While acknowledging that you don't *really* support eSIMs with temp (or no) foreign phone numbers with your apps.
My normal (physSIM) US carrier isn't relevant to anything I stated. In every case, the Samsung apps (along with Android OS) are barfing because they don't like or associate the new eSIM's foreign (now local) phone number & location (and some eSIM plans don't even include a phone number, data-only) with me. The MVNO happens to be using AT&T in the USA, but once the physSIM is disabled and the eSIM is enabled, the US carrier isn't in play or connected in any way on the unlocked phone; it's just the assorted non-US carriers in the new countries. That would also be true if I was using expen$ive international roaming while using my normal carrier's physSIM and phone number, but I'm not; the only diff would be that my phone number would be unchanged.
For both Samsung Store & Find, I'm logged into Samsung (phone, apps) with a valid Samsung-account email & password. If they'd stop being stupid and worrying about the phone number, everything would work fine. In the case of the Store app, they should used the phone's preferred-language and/or let the user set a preferred language in the app, and use that--just because I'm *visiting* Amsterdam with an eSIM and temp local phone number doesn't mean I speak/read Dutch...
And the Samsung Visual Voicemail case is just Samsung being stupid--they have no business "deleting" (hiding) an app from the phone just because the *use* of the app may not be applicable for a carrier.
Highly recommend you get away from eSIM... do that manual SimFlip and save yourself a lot if headaches, carriers have full control of your phone with eSIM?
