If I put my sim card in another phone what will happen

Oh let me guess you just got a new phone. Firstly congrats, but at the same time, you are much worried about your sim card. You must be having a number that is officially recorded everywhere. That is why you don’t want to get a new SIM card instead use the older one. Indeed, you must be concerned about what If I put my sim card in another phone what will happen? And wonder how will everything turn out. But don’t worry we are here for you. We will tell you everything about switching SIM cards between phones and whatnot.

Now some of you may find this a very easy stuff to do while many of you would have faced various problems while doing the same. And so you are here. But it is fine you may not be aware of the carrier, sim card, and phone. And that is why you found it challenging. But this article will help you know everything you are searching for.

Sim Cards

Before checking out anything further you should first know about the SIM cards. A Sim card is a little card that can be inserted into the sim carrier section of your phone. Basically, SIM stands for subscriber identity module. Sim contains much more information like network-related data, contacts, text messages, etc. And this all things are linked to your personal phone number. One thing you should note is that it is not possible to make a call without a sim card. Sim cards are removable and therefore you can switch your sim card between various phones easily. 

The most commonly used technology for sim cards is GSM. It stands for global system for mobile communication. If you have a phone with a carrier that uses GSM, then you are quite lucky. It is because it allows the user to remove the SIM cards and even switch the SIM card between the phones. And switching the SIM card onto various devices even carries all same data on it. And will also ensure you identify the user uniquely.

Another technology that was used is CDMA, which stands for code division multiple access.IM cards are not available for CDMA phones. So how were they each uniquely identified? The service provider was the one who used to recognize them and verify their authenticity.

Different scenarios of inserting “SIM card” in “another phone”

I am aware of the fact that you want to switch the SIM card from one phone to another phone. So your next question must be then what happens if I put my SIM card in another phone? In response to your question, let me tell you that you first need to understand that there might be different results according to the phone carrier. So as there are multiple situations that can occur so let’s see them one by one. 

Case 1: What happens when I put the sim card in the new phone that has a different carrier than your old phone?

If your new phone carrier matches your old one, nothing changes. When you put the SIM card into the new phone, everything will undoubtedly function just like it does on other phones.

Case 2: What happens when I put the sim card in the new phone that has the same carrier as your old phone?

Now here in case 2, your new phone has another carrier. So here in this situation, there are two possible outcomes. Luckily, your sim card will work the same on the new phone. Or else due to the different types of carriers you might face some issues. 

Case 3: What happens when I put the sim card in the phone is unlocked?

In scenario three, we assume that you are using an unlocked phone. So here it makes no difference whether your phone is a factory unlock or GSM-based phone. In this circumstance, everything will undoubtedly go accordingly as required.

What happens when I put “sim card” in “another phone“?

Ok, we discussed a few different scenarios that might occur while putting a sim card into the phone. Now let’s see what happens next. If you have successfully inserted a sim card into another phone, then you must be very conscious to know a few things. So let’s discuss some of the common things that you should be familiar with.

What will happen to all my saved contacts? 

You may have saved some or all contacts of your on the phone itself. So whenever you switch the phone and keep the SIM card all your contacts would be safe. Your sim card contains all the contacts and you can access them.

But as technology has evolved everything has changed. Nowadays many people for all people do not prefer to save their contacts on a SIM card. They directly link their phone number to their Google account and save their all contacts on the cloud. So even if you switch between multiple phones with a sim card. It does not even give you a single problem with your contacts to lose. Simply after you have inserted the sim card into the new phone you simply need to link your phone account with your email and restore all the contacts. 

And if at all you are not preferring Google Cloud but a sim card instead to save your contacts. Then you don’t need to worry. Whenever you insert the sim card into the new phone it automatically imports all your contacts from the SIM card to the phone.

Will my number change? 

The answer is no. If you have successfully inserted a sim card into your phone and all other data stored on the sim card, it is visible to you. Then for sure, your sim card is working. As every other thing remains the same, the same goes for your phone number. A Sim card links your phone number and your identity. This means the sim card also carries your number with it. And there is no change in anyone’s number.

What will happen to all my saved images? 

These days, fewer people still keep some images on their SIM cards. Whenever you switch between phones that use the same sim card you don’t need to be concerned about the data. The SIM card itself contains all of the information stored on it. It is not deleted or otherwise impacted. The sim card will always contain all of your images even though you switch between devices. As soon as you keep that sim card in the phone all the images would be visible to you. But when you take out the SIM card back again you won’t find any image in your phone it is because the sim card carries the image with it. You need to understand that data is stored on the SIM card and your phone is just a medium to get access to the information that is present on the sim card. 

What will happen to all my other saved data? 

As discussed earlier sim card carries all the data with it. So switching between mobile phones doesn’t affect any of the data. Just like images, you will find all your data as soon as you keep the sim card inserted into the phone. Your data may be a text file, audio file, or video file it doesn’t matter. You will not lose any data.

What will happen to applications like WhatsApp, Instagram, etc? 

The first thing you should know is that all these applications are not stored anywhere on your sim card. Yes, it is true that it uses the same phone number as your identity. But switching from one phone to another phone will not affect the working of these applications in any way.

Take WhatsApp into consideration, it links your phone number to it. But moving a sim card from your phone to a new phone doesn’t stop working WhatsApp in your previous home. You can still use WhatsApp on your previous phone. But in case you want to use WhatsApp on your new phone with the same number then you need to install Whatsapp on your new phone. But before you do that, make sure you have taken the backup of your account. Secondly, sign in with the same phone number, and finally, restore the data. It will restore all the messages, images, videos, etc.

Now talking about Instagram. It also does not gets affected in any way. Similar to WhatsApp if you want to use Instagram on your previous phone itself you can do that. Otherwise, if you want Instagram-like applications on your new phone you can simply download them. Secondly, sign in and continue to use it. That it. This goes the same for every application like Instagram.

Can we temporarily switch between phones? 

Yes of course. You can switch from one phone to another with the same sim card for shorter a longer time. And then whenever you want you can switch back again to your previous phone. It will not cause any loss.

The reason why your sim card doesn’t work

What we discussed till now are the facts that everyone wants to know after the sim card is successfully inserted. But what if the sim card is inserted unsuccessfully? And of course, the sim card won’t work as it should work. But now you would want to know what are the reasons behind this. There are common reasons behind this. They are as follows- 

1. SIM Card Locked To Another Carrier 

It is obvious that as you’re going for a different carrier, there will be chances that you will surely face issues. As discussed earlier same carriers wouldn’t give any issue but the different carriers will definitely call for an issue. So make sure your carrier is the same as required by the sim card. 

2. SIM Card is defective 

Another reason could be the defect in your sim card. Firstly you can try to reinsert the sim card and check again if it works. If it doesn’t work after even inserting the SIM card almost 2-3 times, then there is no use for Reinsertion. It won’t work now. It simply means that there is a problem with your sim card.

Conclusion

So by the end of this article, you would have understood that switching from one phone to another phone with the same sim card is not even that difficult. Just you need to think of some factors like carriers. You must now be very clear that any data present in a SIM card doesn’t get wiped out. Suppose your sim card is secure and not broken or damaged. In that case, you will undoubtedly be able to retrieve all of your previously saved images, contacts, audio, videos, or other files from it.

And we hope, the fact that mobile applications are not part of your sim card is now well understood by you. Applications consume the memory of your mobile phone and not of your sim card. Every application which links your phone number does not always require a SIM card.

Frequently Asked Questions