Will apps still be on a phone with a different SIM card?
November 16, 2014 8:35 PM   Subscribe

If I give my smart phone to my spouse, and he inserts his compatible SIM card, will the apps I have on it still be there when he inserts his SIM card?

I'm upgrading my phone and I always get the upgrade and he always gets my leftovers. He doesn't mind in the least because he's not that interested in a lot of tech stuff, however he does want certain apps on it and he has trouble with adding apps to phones, especially apps via Amazon. He is presently working in California and I'm in Alabama, so I can't just help him with it.

If I install the apps, that he says he wants, will they still work when he inserts his SIM card? I don't understand SIM cards. My daughter insists that they will work, but I thought a new SIM card resets the phone.

If it matters, he has a rotten Samsung Y S5360. It has so little memory he can't even text half the time. :(

The one I'm sending him is a Galaxy S2, and though it is a really old phone, it has worked really well all these years and is perfect for his usage of a phone. I went ahead and told T-Mobile to send him a new SIM card, because I didn't know if the one he had was compatible or not.

While I'm on the subject, how do I sign out of Google services before I send the phone? How would I tell him to sign in to Google services? Can he just sign in via Gmail or Google Play?

Sorry, but I don't know much about this stuff. I know how to download apps and use them, but that's all I know.
posted by magnoliasouth to Technology (8 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Yes.
posted by humboldt32 at 8:36 PM on November 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Yes. He will have to sign in with his accounts, but the apps will be there. He can sign in to the phone using his gmail account.
posted by 724A at 8:39 PM on November 16, 2014


Response by poster: Thanks to both of you. I'm not telling my daughter I second guessed her. lol! Shhhhh.
posted by magnoliasouth at 8:47 PM on November 16, 2014


If your're worried about google services and such getting mixed up, you could do a factory reset. You should get a 'first run' screen where your partner can sign in with his account/s. You then install all their preferred apps before handing it over for good.

[edit] just realised you need to send the phone to him somewhere else. Factory reset might still be an option if they'll let you sign in for them on the 'new' phone.
posted by quinndexter at 9:06 PM on November 16, 2014


It's worth noting that some apps, especially some distributed through Amazon's app store, require that you be logged into that account to use the apps. They'll still be there--the sim card doesn't effect the apps at all--but if you're thinking about signing yourself out of Google and Amazon services, you might lose the use of some apps. You can test this before you send him the phone--take out your sim, connect to wifi, sign yourself out of your Amazon account, and then make sure that your apps still work.
posted by MeghanC at 9:51 PM on November 16, 2014


I don't understand SIM cards.

All they are is little microcontrollers with just enough memory to store subscriber and network identity information and a couple hundred address book entries; well under a megabyte. Apps in the usual sense are way too small to fit in such a thing. Apps that don't care who you are should be completely unaffected by which SIM (if any) is in the phone.
posted by flabdablet at 5:09 AM on November 17, 2014


the sim only affects the phone number & plan associated with the device, not any of the apps or anything else. You'll want to sign out/clear data from all the apps otherwise they still look like they are from you.

As others said, pull the sim and use wifi to see what the device does.
posted by TheAdamist at 7:01 AM on November 17, 2014


When I wrote that apps are "way too small" to fit in a SIM, the idea I had in my head was that the SIM is way too small and the apps are way too big. Sorry if that was confusing.
posted by flabdablet at 1:18 AM on November 18, 2014


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