There’s a war going on that you don’t often hear about.
It’s the war between mobile OS-switching technologies. These are the apps that help you transition from Android to iPhone and vice versa.
Apple’s Android to iPhone transitioning process is notoriously difficult, as one New York Times reporter discovered last year, claiming the process required “patience and persistence.”
Switching from iPhone to Android, however, doesn’t have the same difficulty factor. But it’s still a process that requires some patience.
Today, we’re explaining how to easily switch from iPhone to Android.
Transfer Photos Using Google Photos
The first thing you’re going to want to do is install Google’s cloud-based apps that take information off your iPhone and store it remotely in the cloud. This is the fastest and easiest way to transfer data from iPhone to Android.
To start, download the Google Photos app from the iTunes App Store.
Open Google Photos and sign in using your Google account (your Gmail address and password). Sign up for Gmail if you don’t already have an account.
Then, choose Back up & sync for your photos by selecting the menu icon, followed by the gear icon at the top right. Then go to Camera and Photos and touch Back up & sync and switch it on.
Wait for your photos to be uploaded to the cloud (this can take a while if you have a lot of locally-stored photos on your phone).
Then, on your new Android device, open the Photos app and make sure you see all of the photos from your iPhone or iPad.
Transfer Contacts
If your iPhone contacts are already all saved in Gmail, then they will already appear on your phone.
If, however, they’re stored in iCloud, then you’ll need to transfer them using the process below.
To find out where your contacts are saved, tap Settings then Mail, Contacts, Calendars. From the Contacts section, tap Default Account, which will tell you which account is selected.
If your iCloud account is selected, then follow these steps:
Step 1) Go to Settings then Mail, Contacts, Calendars, then Accounts, where you’ll see the iCloud option listed. Open iCloud and turn on the toggle for Contacts, at which point you’ll see a prompt to merge your device’s contacts with iCloud.
Step 2) Open your internet browser on your computer and go to icloud.com. Log into your account and click Contacts in the lower left corner of the screen, then click the wheel and press Select All. After you’ve selected all, click the wheel again and choose “Export vCard”.
Step 3) Go to Gmail.com in your internet browser, then click the Mail button in the top left corner and select Contacts. You’ll see a list of your Gmail contacts (if you have any).
Step 4) Click More (above the contacts list) and then click Import. Click Choose file and then select the vCard file that you saved in step 2. Gmail will import your contacts. Check to make sure they all appeared in the list.
Step 5) Remove any duplicate contacts by clicking the Find & merge duplicates button under “More” above the contacts list.
Install Your Favorite Apps
If you have sign-in data for any apps on iTunes, then that sign-in data will carry over to Android in most cases.
Just install the app on your Android device and sign in with your account name.
Email accounts, for example, work the same way on Android as they do on the iPhone: just install the email client you used on iOS. If you need to use iCloud email, then you’ll need to install an app that supports IMAP, POP3, and Exchange accounts.
Turn Off iMessage on your iPhone
Apple has a weird glitch where you need to turn off iMessage on your old iPhone, otherwise messages from your friends will continue to be sent to iMessage even when you deactivate your iPhone (and even if you have the same number).
To turn off iMessage, go to Settings > Messages and set iMessage to off.
If you don’t do this, then friends who message your number (even after that number has been transferred to Android) may have their messages lost in iMessage continuum.
Download Your iPhone Apps
It’s rare these days to find a major app that’s available exclusively on either Android or iPhone.
With this step, search the Play Store for apps you regularly use on your iPhone. It helps to have your new and old phones beside each other for this step.
Even if you can’t find the same app on Android, there will almost certainly be a similar competitor. Android is the world’s largest and most popular mobile operating system – so if there’s a market for an app, somebody has created it.
That’s it! Switching from iOS to Android isn’t hard at all. Remember: it’s in Google’s best interest to make the switch as easy as possible for you.
