I wanted to join Google Fi, but one limitation ruined everything

Google Fi announced some new and updated plans this week, and I have to admit — they look fantastic. The new Unlimited Essentials plan gives you unlimited talk, text, and data (the first 30GB being high-speed data) for just $35/month. Meanwhile, the other two unlimited plans saw significant high-speed data and hotspot allowance increases without a price hike. In today’s carrier world, that’s pretty rare.

After seeing the news, I went to the Google Fi website and started pricing things out. I’ve been subscribed to T-Mobile for several years now, and while I don’t have any major complaints, the tweaks to Google Fi are compelling enough that I was debating a switch.

However, those thoughts went away pretty quickly. As good as the updated Google Fi plans may be, they’re missing a fairly significant feature that I can’t give up.

I currently have six lines on my T-Mobile account (including my partner, my parents, my grandma, and two lines for myself). All of those lines are used a bit differently, and thanks to a grandfathered promo I got when I signed up for T-Mobile nearly a decade ago, our plans are mixed and matched in a way that fits all of our needs. My parents, my partner, and my primary line are T-Mobile ONE Plus plans, while my grandma and my second line are on the regular T-Mobile ONE plan.

T-Mobile doesn’t natively support plan mixing and matching, but the way our account is set up, that’s essentially what we’re doing — and it works out wonderfully. My grandma doesn’t need a high-speed mobile hotspot, faster international data speeds, or in-flight Wi-Fi support. As such, her not having those features works out fine. The same is true of my secondary line, which I primarily use just for 5G service when I’m reviewing or testing a new phone.

Meanwhile, my parents, partner, and primary line have the extra perks of the ONE Plus plan. We all use those various perks in different ways, and the price we pay for those extra features is worth it to us. All of us use our phones and lines a bit differently, and having plans that best fit our individual needs has been a tremendous convenience.

Unfortunately, it’s a convenience that’s not possible with Google Fi.

Looking at the three available plans, each one would be a good fit for my family and me. My grandma would get everything she needs with the Unlimited Essentials plan, and I could put my second line on that, too. My parents and my partner would be well-suited by the Unlimited Standard plan, while the Unlimited Premium plan has some features I would need for my primary line.

If I could mix and match these using the existing per-line prices, it would come out to a little over $160/month. That’s cheaper than what I’m paying right now for all of my T-Mobile lines, and it’d push me to seriously consider switching to Fi. But that’s not possible.

When signing up for a multi-line account on Google Fi, every single line has to be on the same plan. So, if I were to get the Unlimited Premium plan for myself (which I need for my usage), everyone else on my account would have to get it too, and our monthly bill would rise to a whopping $240/month — significantly more than what we’re paying for our T-Mobile service.

Ultimately, this one limitation kills any realistic chance of me ever joining Google Fi. Mixing and matching plans may not matter to some people, but when you have as many lines as I do with different use cases across all of them, the one-size-fits-all approach rarely works.

There’s a lot to like about Google Fi right now, and if I were by myself or getting plans for people who all use their phones as much as I do, I’d sign up in an instant.

But that’s not a situation I find myself in, and I imagine that’s true for many other people, too. If you’re on a multi-line account with friends or family members, there’s a very good chance you all have different phone needs that aren’t best served by the same wireless plan. Mix and match support is essential in those cases, but for whatever reason, Google Fi doesn’t seem to understand its importance.

And until it does, I’ll have to keep looking at Google Fi from the sidelines.