Last month, Apple announced a feature called iPhone Handoff. Not to be confused with that Handoff; this is a new one.
iPhone Handoff allows you to keep your number active on two iPhones at the same time so you can easily switch between them. According to Apple’s support website, you pick one phone as your main phone and set up Handoff on the other as your secondary phone. When you unlock one of them, your number becomes active on that phone — that’s where you’ll get calls, and that device will be used for Find My.
The idea is that your secondary phone will be something you pick up on weekends, for example, with apps and settings configured to your needs, and Handoff means you can use it with your existing phone number. Apple is pitching it as a totally seamless way to use your number on two phones, but that convenience comes at a cost.
T-Mobile is the first US carrier to support the feature, and it’s an extra $5 on your monthly phone bill to use it. Verizon is also planning to support Handoff by the end of the year.
If you’re on AT&T you’re out of luck, it seems.
As someone who uses a lot of different phones, this all sounds handy. But the more I considered how it would actually work, the more I wondered: Who is this feature really for? Why not just switch your eSIM? As I read up on it, the wilder it seemed. And so I present my short list of potential iPhone Handoff users, ranked from least to most speculative.
You want to live the Duo lifestyle but you don’t want to give up your slab phone
Given that Apple announced Handoff when it unveiled the Duo, this is likely a scenario that Cupertino had in mind.