You know how much of a pain it has been to activate a non-Verizon branded Nexus 6 on Verizon, even though the phone is completely unlocked at all times and fully works on Verizon’s airwaves? For a while, it was pretty tough. In fact, it took months before Verizon allowed the Nexus 6 from Google Play or other carriers to be activated on its network. Now, we’re talking activating, not SIM-swapping. There is a difference here.

Verizon, like with the Nexus 7 (2013), likes to use this “we are still testing the device and haven’t certified it yet” when telling people they can’t activate unlocked phones or other devices. Again, these phones all fully work and more than likely (like 99.999999999999999%) won’t do harm to their network, but they still must test. And since they are testing, they won’t just activate anything.

While that will still be the case going forward (the painfully slow certification process), Verizon is at least attempting to make the process easier, once a device gets everything all up in the certified arena. According to Verizon, the company is now “accepting and activating select non-Verizon smartphones like the Nexus 6. Other examples include iOS devices such as iPhone 6 and 6 Plus or iPad Air.” Outside of those, more could be added once they are certified.

A dedicated page has been setup on Verizon’s site that will tell you if your phone can be activated on their network. It’ll ask for your operating system and IMEI, before telling you which plans to choose from to get service up and running.

Of course, with unlocked phones that have supported Verizon CDMA and LTE bands, you can just swap in an already activated SIM card and get busy. That’s the “SIM-swapping” we talked about earlier. But with activation, this might be the solution, assuming your device is certified. Baby steps.

Side note: Holy sh*t, I never want to type “certified” ever again.

Verizon Link