multiple eSIMS / Google Play Services sandboxed on owner profile ?

Gee

I did some research in the forum while setting up my Pixel 6 pro and hit an obvious wall.
I need to use multiple eSIMs plus the pSIM on my Pixel which is obviously possible (didn't find an answer how many, though - in case anybody knows), but then, again, I read in another thread that this is only possible when having Google Play services sandboxed in the owner profile :/
As this is my first contact with GOS, this might be a dumb question:
can somebody fill me in why having Google sandboxed in the owner profile is so much worse than having it in a secondary profile? As for my understanding all profiles are completely seperated from each others and do not exchange data. I do understand that the owner profile must have some priviledges, but sorry to be such a noob, but to me sandboxed is sandboxed...

Or maybe there is a work around existing, meanwhile?

p338k

Gee

can somebody fill me in why having Google sandboxed in the owner profile is so much worse than having it in a secondary profile?

If you install it in a secondary profile, you can end the profile's session and the Google Play services easily and conveniently. To do that in the owner profile, you need to turn the phone off. Applications in separate profiles can't communicate with each other as easily as if they are in the same profile. The application sandbox is the same either way.

wahY0tai

I think you may be mistaken, i think only one psim and one esim works at the same time.

de0u

wahY0tai I think only one psim and one esim works at the same time.

I think so too. eSIMs are stored in a specific piece of hardware that has a capacity, and for at least some Pixels I believe the capacity is one eSIM. I think iPhones vary widely in terms of eSIM capacity. Review of device specs may be helpful (I am not an eSIM user, so I haven't).

Gee

This is the post - first hit when you enter "multiple eSIMS"in the search bar:

evalda16 AprEdited
spiral I can confirm you can install multiple (I tested 2 so far) eSIMs in addition to the physical SIM. You can switch between SIMs as you wish, there are only a couple of caveats:

To be able to switch between eSIMs, sandboxed play services need to keep running in the Owner profile. So if someone hoped to install Play Services, install extra eSIM and uninstall Play Services that won't work because for switching between eSIMs you also need Play Services
Enable Privileged eSIM management checkbox in Settings get disabled automatically on each reboot, so you need to go in Settings and enable it each time you need to switch between eSIMs (if you rebooted since the last switch)
Now I wonder if there is a limit of how many eSIMs can be installed on Pixel 6 Pro?

spiral

Gee

You can have multiple eSIMs installed onto the Pixel 6, but only one can be active at any given time.

So, one pSIM and one eSIM at the same time.

Gee

p338k
Hi and thanks for your explanation. What exactly do you mean by I can end the owner profile session by switching the phone of? I thought switching to another/secondary profile would already finish the session?

Gee

spiral
Hi and thank you very much. I'll check it out. There are some services which provide eSIM for a month for a very affordable price. These can be terminated any time, so I think, it can't hurt to try and find out how many eSIMs I can load on a Pixel 6 pro :)

wahY0tai

Gee the owner profile is always active.

p338k

Gee
To add to wahY0tai's answer. You can have multiple profiles running at once. The owner profile is always active, but you can end secondary profiles manually.

Gee

wahY0tai
Thank you.

Gee

p338k
Ah, ok. Thank you.

Eagle_Owl

To add p338k's answer. In the settings menu for multiple users, you can also specify whether the profiles should continue to run in the background. Only then do they remain active when switching. Otherwise they will be cancelled when switching. The latter is great for saving energy for apps in profiles that are used rarely and only briefly.

@Gee: to answer your question about how much eSIM profiles are possible:
One person had written in another (German-language) Google support forum: quote: “5 eSIM profiles.”
(no guarantee from me, source reference down below…)

And also important: you can setup in the multi-user settings, that the user profiles can use phone and/or SMS.
But you cannot select a special eSIM profile for each user profile.
The second, third, fourth, fifth etc. user profile gets the connection with the current active eSIM profile last time selected in your owner profile.

The answers from the Google support forum are very contradictory and often disappointing.
There are currently more and better answers in German than in English (this may change later)

Source reference:
https://support.google.com/pixelphone/thread/181132934/wie-viele-esim-profile-kann-ich-im-pixel-6a-speichern-und-im-wechsel-nutzen?hl=de