Look around you. That SIM card tray, the tangled charging cable, the cable TV remote your dad guards with his life — they’re all heading for the exit. The world is in the middle of a massive tech makeover, and India? Very much in the thick of it. From UPI eating cash for breakfast to passkeys slowly murdering passwords, the signs are already everywhere, steadily rewiring how we pay, move, unlock, search and live. And honestly, it’s just happening, one software update and one dead habit at a time, whether you have noticed or not. So here are some everyday things that may look completely different or simply disappear in the near future.
No passwords, only passkeys
The pain of forgetting your password is about to be over. Passkeys, where your face scan or fingerprint is your login, have become mainstream. Microsoft made passkeys the default for all new accounts in May 2025 that triggered a 120 per cent surge in usage overnight. Google, Apple and Amazon have all followed suit. In India, the RBI has been pushing banks and fin-tech platforms toward phishing-resistant authentication, which is exactly what passkeys are built for.
Physical SIM cards on way out
The days of little plastic chip are numbered. eSIM, where your SIM lives digitally inside your phone, is already here. Airtel, Jio, BSNL and Vi all support it, letting users activate connections remotely without any physical SIM card. TRAI has mandated eSIM support for all new smartphones sold in India from 2025 onwards. GSMA Intelligence projects India will hit 150 million eSIM users by the end of 2026.
No tangled charging cables
Wireless charging is now standard on every flagship phone — from the iPhone to OnePlus to Samsung Galaxy. MagSafe-style snap-on charging is catching on fast and over-the-air power transfer (charging without any pad at all) is already in early development globally. The humble USB cable isn’t gone yet though, especially with budget phones still dominating India’s market, but it is definitely on the clock.
AI makeover for search engines
‘Ask ChatGPT’might soon replace ‘Google it’. With 900 million weekly ChatGPT users globally and Google now showing AI-generated answers at the top of 50 per cent of searches, traditional search is transforming. AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity are rapidly becoming the go-to research tools for students and professionals alike, especially after the JEE/NEET aspirants discovered that AI can explain complex concepts in easy ways. Global research firm Gartner predicts search volume will drop 25 per cent by 2026.
Physical cards on life support
The UPI revolution has already made plastic cards near-redundant. In India, UPI clocked a record 21.63 billion transactions in December 2025 alone. That’s over 650 million payments every single day, surpassing even Visa’s daily count globally. Annual UPI volume hit 228.3 billion transactions in 2025. PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm now dominate 98 per cent of all UPI volume among them.
Cash losing its clout
After cards, next on the disappearing list is cash. The shift away from cash didn’t happen overnight. Demonetisation cracked the habit. Covid-19 broke it for good. India’s cash usage indicator, measuring cash’s share of private consumption spending, dropped from 81-86 per cent in early 2021 to just 52-60 per cent by early 2024. In recent surveys, over 91 per cent of respondents said they switched from cash to digital payments in the past 2-3 years and more than 80 per cent now carry significantly less cash. From golgappa seller to cabs to even prasad stalls at temples — everyone has a QR code.
Dwindling cable TV subscriptions
Your dad still pays for that DTH subscription. But for how long? Pay TV subscribers in India fell from 151 million in 2018 to 111 million in 2024, a drop of 40 million households in just six years. Meanwhile, India’s OTT audience has crossed 601 million in 2025. That’s 41 per cent of the entire country streaming online videos. Connected TV users surged 87 per cent to 129.2 million people watching OTT on their actual television screens, and 110 million Indians now skip traditional TV entirely. The set-top box is becoming structurally obsolete.
Phone to replace car key
Digital car keys, where your phone is the key, are already here. Apple CarKey was launched back in 2020, and car brands like Hyundai and Kia support it. App-based keyless entry is already standard on Tata Nexon EV, MG ZS EV and several Hyundai and Kia models. You unlock via the brand’s app, share access with family members digitally, and track your car’s location. No physical key required. The traditional metal key is still there, but every new EV launch is chipping away at it.
Not everything on this list will vanish completely. Cash, cable and car keys will likely stick around for some time yet. But the direction is clear. Convenience always supersedes and right now it is digital, wireless and increasingly AI-powered. So which of these do you think will disappear from your life first?
