Verizon's Visible month-to-month plan hits Android today

Way back in May, Verizon launched a month-to-month service called Visible. At the time, it had a pretty restrictive sign-up process, as it was invite-only and limited to iOS. In the months since, we've seen Visible open up a bit by getting rid of the invite requirement, but today the company takes perhaps its biggest availability leap by introducing support for Android.

Unfortunately, this Android support is still fairly limited at the start. For now, Visible only supports the Galaxy S9 and S9+, but the company says that it's planning to add more compatible Android phones soon. If, however, you've got one of those two devices, you can download the app today and sign up for service through it.

One of the main draws of Visible is that it's entirely app-based, meaning you don't have to go into carrier stores that are often packed and full of people looking to sell you things you probably don't need. Visible's single plan is pretty straightforward as well, offering unlimited talk, text, and data for $40 a month.

As with basically everything involving the wireless industry, there are a few caveats to consider with Visible's plan, though. Unlike unlimited data plans from the big US carriers, there are no soft caps to your data usage that throttle your speeds after crossing a certain threshold, but that's because your speeds are limited from the start. Data speeds top out at 5Mbps and videos will stream at 480p, though it's also worth pointing out that hotspot functionality is included as well.

So, if you are okay with those asterisks, Visible sounds like it could be a pretty decent deal. The company also announced today that it has partnered with Affirm to offer financing on new devices, starting once again with the Galaxy S9, S9+, and pretty much every iPhone model dating back to the iPhone SE. Obviously, that'll increase your monthly charges for service, but it means that folks without a Verizon-compatible phone can get one from Visible.

The hope is that Visible adds support for additional Android devices quickly – while many Android adherents likely own a Galaxy S9 or S9+, those two phones are just a tiny fraction of all the Android devices out in the wild, and a small portion of even Samsung's current device lineup. We'll see how long it takes for Visible to pad out its Android compatibility list, but in the meantime, you can grab the beta version of Visible's app from the Google Play Store.