It is reported that Android 13 will natively support the activation of multiple eSIM cards on a single chip

Traditional mobile phones use physical cards called SIM cards to connect to cellular networks. The current progress of eSIM digital cards is not fast, partly because Android does not provide good support. According to Esper’s latest report, Google may focus on eSIM in Android 13 to promote the popularization of this technology.

Esper reports that Android 13's codebase includes a patent filed by Google in 2020 that would allow the use of multiple SIM profiles on a single embedded chip.

According to the patent description, it is achieved by splitting the single physical data bus between the modem and the eSIM chip into multiple logical interfaces, which are multiplexed on a single physical interface. It sounds a bit like a modern CPU splitting the physical CPU core into logical CPU cores to perform more tasks at the same time.

Unlike a physical SIM card that requires a slot, an eSIM only requires a small component on the motherboard, which leaves more room for a larger battery, camera hardware, or other components. However, there are not many phones that have completely ditched the physical SIM card slot.

Google hasn’t mentioned this feature publicly yet, but if it does remain in the final version of Android 13, it would be a huge boost for eSIM cards.