Android : Check whether the phone is dual SIM

Question

After a lot of research on forums, now I know that there is no way to find IMSI or SIM serial number for both the SIM cards in a dual SIM phone (except for contacting the manufacturer). Now my changed question is, can we at all detect that the phone has two SIMs? I believe it can be detected with some intelligence. Few ways I can think of are:

1. Dialing an USSD code and tracing the logs for IMEI number (I tried this with *139# in India. It worked.) This will give me IMEI number for the SIM from which I dialed the USSD code. (It is presumed that the phone follows android guidelines and has two IMEI numbers.)

2. Storing the SIM serial number and/or IMSI for the SIM. And after detection of any other IMSI/Serial number even if the phone was not rebooted (i.e. the SIM was switched) by tracing some logs or by some broadcast event handling.

3. By dialing *06# you will get to see both IMEI numbers. By some way, get those two numbers. (Something like screen capturing and image parsing for text.)

If anyone can think of some other ways, they are most welcome. I would really appreciate any kind of help regarding this. Also, if anyone has any information about any manufacturers APIs or links to contact them, please do share with the community people.

Answer 1

There are several native solutions I've found while searching the way to check network operator.

For API >=17:

TelephonyManager manager = (TelephonyManager)context.getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE);

// Get information about all radio modules on device board
// and check what you need by calling #getCellIdentity.

final List<CellInfo> allCellInfo = manager.getAllCellInfo();
for (CellInfo cellInfo : allCellInfo) {
    if (cellInfo instanceof CellInfoGsm) {
        CellIdentityGsm cellIdentity = ((CellInfoGsm) cellInfo).getCellIdentity();
        //TODO Use cellIdentity to check MCC/MNC code, for instance.
    } else if (cellInfo instanceof CellInfoWcdma) {
        CellIdentityWcdma cellIdentity = ((CellInfoWcdma) cellInfo).getCellIdentity();
    } else if (cellInfo instanceof CellInfoLte) {
        CellIdentityLte cellIdentity = ((CellInfoLte) cellInfo).getCellIdentity();
    } else if (cellInfo instanceof CellInfoCdma) {
        CellIdentityCdma cellIdentity = ((CellInfoCdma) cellInfo).getCellIdentity();
    } 
}

In AndroidManifest add permission:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />
</manifest>

To get network operator you can check mcc and mnc codes:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_country_code (general information).
• https://clients.txtnation.com/hc/en-us/articles/218719768-MCCMNC-mobile-country-code-and-mobile-network-code-list- (quite full and quite latest list of operators).

For API >=22:

final SubscriptionManager subscriptionManager = SubscriptionManager.from(context);
final List<SubscriptionInfo> activeSubscriptionInfoList = subscriptionManager.getActiveSubscriptionInfoList();
for (SubscriptionInfo subscriptionInfo : activeSubscriptionInfoList) {
    final CharSequence carrierName = subscriptionInfo.getCarrierName();
    final CharSequence displayName = subscriptionInfo.getDisplayName();
    final int mcc = subscriptionInfo.getMcc();
    final int mnc = subscriptionInfo.getMnc();
    final String subscriptionInfoNumber = subscriptionInfo.getNumber();
}

For API >=23. To just check if phone is dual/triple/many sim:

TelephonyManager manager = (TelephonyManager)context.getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE);
if (manager.getPhoneCount() == 2) {
    // Dual sim
}

Answer 2

I have found these system properties on Samsung S8

SystemProperties.getInt("ro.multisim.simslotcount", 1) > 1

Also, according to the source: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/master/telephony/java/com/android/internal/telephony/TelephonyProperties.java

getprop persist.radio.multisim.config returns "dsds" or "dsda" on multi sim.

I have tested this on Samsung S8 and it works