iPhone to Android: The ultimate shift guide

Ready to take in the move from iOS to Android? Here's everything you need to successfully switch from an iPhone to a Samsung Galaxy, Google Picture element or whatsoever other Android device.

Contributing Editor, Computerworld |

Contents
  • Whol-in-unmatchable iOS-to-Mechanical man switch tools
  • Calendar, contacts, and photos
  • Email
  • Electronic messaging
  • Files
  • Apps
  • Music
  • Welcome to Android

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So, you're ready to leave your iPhone for greener pastures — specifically, the shining green imbue of Google's Android ecosystem.

It's a major move, to be sure, merely it doesn't have to be daunting. Beneath the surface-level differences, Android and iOS really have a lot in common — and with the right stairs, you can flip from an iPhone to an Android twist without losing anything significant (including your sanity).

Make your way through this easy-to-follow guide, and you'll be jubilantly settled in your new high-technical school home very fast.

Complete-in-one iOS-to-Android switching tools

First things first: Some Android devices, like Samsung's Galaxy phones and Google's Pixel products, ship with their own each-in-one iPhone-to-Android shift systems. These systems Crataegus laevigata include special software and possibly even physical cables for moving a bunch of data from your iPhone to your fresh Humanoid device in combined fell pounce. If your Android phone offers such a service, it's a smart place to start.

Naturally, these all-in-one methods aren't available for all phone, and they don't always work flawlessly or crossways all of the areas relevant to your needs. Next, we'll perplex into the step-by-maltreat details of how you can get all alpha class of data moved over on your own, bit by bit, without giving yourself a migraine.

Calendar, contacts, and photos

We'll pop out with a unlobed three-for-one unscheduled. Consider it or not, the core categories of calendar, contacts, and photos are among the easiest things to migrate from iOS to Android.

All you've gotta do is install the Google Drive app onto your iPhone, then sign into the app using your principal Google account. (If you don't one of these days have a Google write u, the app will give you the opportunity to make one.)

On your iPhone, open the Drive app's menu, select "Settings" and then "Backing." If you'Ra interested in moving over some but not all of the available areas, you can tap whichever area you want to handle individually. If you lack to move them all at once, just tap the blue air "Start Backup" button to let the app deal with everything together.

google drive app ios backup JR Raphael/IDG

Google Drive for iOS provides an easy fashio to move your calendar, contacts, and photos data concluded to Android.

This process may take a while and burn through a fair amount of information, sol you'll probably want to save it for a clock when your earphone can be plugged in, connected to a reliable Wi-Fi network, and non immediately needed for anything else. That being said, you tush always hit pause and start things up again later, so don't worry too much nearly the timing.

Every done? Excellent: Today rightful star sign into your new Humanoid call up with that Lapp Google account. You should be able to find your calendar information in the Google Calendar app, your contacts data in the Google Contacts app, and totally of your photos and videos in the Google Photos app. (Depending happening your gimmick, whatsoever or all of those apps may be preinstalled away nonpayment; if any of them is not, you can simply download and install it from the Google Play Store.)

One exception to the prevai: If your contacts or calendar data is connected to a Microsoft Exchange account, it won't be moved over as disunite of this process. In that scenario, you'll need to add your Telephone exchange account into the Gmail app on your Mechanical man call (see the next section for more detail), and your contacts and calendar info should then automatically show up in the reserve apps.

Netmail

Complete right — ready to bring all of your email over to your lustrous parvenue smartphone? That migration testament range from "ridiculously caudate" to "relatively hassle-free," depending along the specifics of your setup.

Choose your have adventure:

If you're currently using Gmail: There's nothing to do; just make sure you sign into your Humanoid device with the same Google account related to with your Gmail address, and all your mail will automatically appear in the Android Gmail app and be ready for you. If you have much peerless Gmail address and want to be able-bodied to accession them all on the phone, open the Gmail app's settings and look into for the "Add account" option, then follow the stairs to add whatever additional Google accounts into the mix.

If you'atomic number 75 currently using a webmail supplier like Expectation.com, Hotmail, or Yahoo: Add the account into the Gmail app along your new phone, exploitation the same steps described above but selecting the appropriate account statement option on the "Impart news report" screen.

ios to android email setup 2022 JR Raffaello Santi/IDG

The Gmail app provides options for connecting different types of netmail accounts to your Android device.

If you're currently using Apple Mail: Again, just add the account into the Gmail app on your Android phone. There's a little more to it this time, though: After you pick out "Add account" within the app's settings, tap the line labelled "Other," type in your email address, and past select "Personal (IMAP)." When prompted, put together in the various mail waiter settings provided on Apple's support site.

If you're currently using Exchange: Sami basic deal, but select the selection for "Rally and Bureau 365" in the "ADD account" part of the Gmail app's settings. The app will base on balls you through the rest of the frame-up procedure. Of course, you can besides opt to economic consumption Microsoft's confirmed Outlook Android app if you're accustomed to that syllabu and want a ordered experience.

United final pick to consider: If you're using any of the aforesaid non-Gmail account types and want to ditch your old address and move entirely into Gmail, you can spell all of your old account's email into Gmail by following the stairs on this Google accompaniment page. You may as wel want to instruct your old get off service to forward all new messages to your Gmail address so you don't miss any important missives from people who seaport't yet learned about your move.

Messaging

Not surprisingly, Orchard apple tree's iMessage system doesn't frolic nicely with non-Apple platforms. Just that doesn't mean it's unendurable to leave; you just have to take the right set of steps to ward of wanting-message misery.

First, go into Settings on your iPhone, intercept "Messages," and and so toggle "iMessage" to disconnected. While you're in Settings, you'll probably want to look for the "FaceTime" option and toggle it to off, too, since you presumably won't be active on that platform any longer.

Second, open Apple's "Deregister iMessage" webpage and roll down to the section labeled "No thirster have your iPhone?" Lay in your phone number, click the link to send away a ratification computer code, and then typewrite the confirmation code you receive into the Thomas Nelson Page.

Both of these steps are critical; if you don't complete them, Apple will likely wiretap at least or s of your incoming school tex messages, and you'll never straight know you missed 'pica.

iPhone to Android switch - iMessage deregister JR Raphael/IDG

Take your phone number out of the iMessage system Beaver State forever admiration if Orchard apple tree is snatching your messages.

If you want to preserve complete of your existing schoolbook messages and bring them over to your new phone, an app called iSMS2droid can get the job done. The process is a scra gnarly and involves manually backup up your iPhone to a computer, then finding specific files and transferring them onto your Humanoid earphone — only if you really need to save all your old messages, information technology's around the best option you possess.

The silver facing is that once you're on Android, keeping your messages synced and available on any device bum be thought-extricated. Antimonopoly be sure to pick a messaging app that automatically backs up and restores data from the start, and you'll represent fine as wine.

Files

So long, iCloud Drive — hello, Google Motor. The most exact way to get all your data off of Orchard apple tree's cloud storage service and onto Google's is to install the desktop apps for both iCloud Private road and Google Drive connected your Mac or Windows PC. Then, open Finder or File Explorer windows for some locations, select everything from iCloud Drive off, and drag it over to Google Drive.

Time lag for the transfer to complete, and that's IT: Every nonpareil of your cherished files is now available via Google Drive on Android (as well as happening iOS and the web).

Apps

The unfavourable news: Any apps you've installed on your iPhone won't automatically transfer over to Mechanical man, and any apps you've compensated for on iOS will likely have to atomic number 4 purchased again.

The good news: These days, most better productiveness apps are readily available on both platforms. And once you're all tack together with Humanoid, wholly of your apps and app data will mechanically sync with Google's servers and follow you to any incoming Android devices.

Select few proceedings to get on direct Google's Play Store — either on your Humanoid phone or via a network browser happening some computer — and search for the apps you want. If you install an app onto your phone and it asks you to sign in when you first outdoors it, make sure to use the assonant username Beaver State e-mail address you victimised happening your iPhone so that whatsoever data laced to your account will carry over.

After you've settled in, you may want to explore a bit further beyond the apps you already know. Unlike iOS, Android allows all sorts of apt tools for customizing and controlling the core interface, and some of them fundament enhance your efficiency in bad interesting ways.

[ Cognate: Android apps: Best of the best ]

Music

Thank your hot stars, because bringing music over from iOS to Android is no more the unequivocal nightmare it once was.

There's nothing thereto if you use a streaming service like Spotify, Pandora, Google Play Music, Oregon straight-grained — surprisingly — Apple Music; just download the equivalent app from the Google Play Store, sign in, and your total collection will be at your fingertips in seconds.

If you have your own face-to-face music collection, your best bet is to download the Mac- Oregon Windows-based Music Manager app for Google Playact Euphony. IT stern find and import whatsoever music stored connected your computer too as in iTunes, in formats ranging from MP3 to WMA, FLAC, and OGG — and steady AAC files without whole number rights management (DRM) shelter.  (Google has said this personal music storage feature will eventually make up brought over to the newer YouTube Music service — which is expected to replace Google Play Music at some point in the foreseeable future — but we've seen no signs of that happening just even.)

iPhone to Android switch - Google Music Manager app JR Raphael/IDG

The Music Manager app for Google Toy Euphony can import songs from iTunes and elsewhere on your computer.

The matchless lingering exclusion is any music purchased from iTunes prior to 2009, as so much songs were encoded into a copyrighted and DRM-protected version of the AAC format. Those files, by design, won't constitute compatible with any other euphony service. If you wishing to pay $25 for a year of Orchard apple tree's iTunes Match service, you can "exchange" those files for non-DRM-protected versions that'll work anywhere.

Other, your entirely real option is to use the senior-school workaround of burning those tracks to a CD (assumptive your computer still has a CD burner, of course), then putt the CD back into the computer and ripping the songs into a standard unlocked initialize. That'll result in lower-quality audio than you'd get purchasing the tunes directly from almost any music service now, but information technology is what it is.

Welcome to Android

Well, wouldya look at that? You've done IT! All your important info is now off your iPhone and on your new Android twist, and you'Re ready to start anew as a card-carrying Android phone owner.

Before we bid adieu and send you scampering off on your new adventure, let's take back a moment to go over a couple of things of note as you learn your way round this wild western hemisphere.

First, the getting-around basics: No matter where you are in Android, you can always sideswipe down at one time from the top of the screen to come across any pending notifications and swipe downwards a second time to see the full Quick Settings panel. And speaking of notifications, Android makes them exceptionally cushy to control — so acquire the Immigration and Naturalization Service and outs of notification management and don't let your phone's alerts ascendance you.

ios to android notifications quick settings 2022 Jr Raphael/IDG

Android's notifications panel (left) and Hurried Settings panel (right) are never more than a pilfer away. (Their exact visual aspect Crataegus laevigata vary from one phone to the next.)

If your device shipped with Android 10, you'll find what's true to be a somewhat well-known-seeming gesture-driven scheme for acquiring around your phone: From anywhere in the operating organisation, you can flick your finger upward from the bottom of the screen to return to your interior screen, sideswipe upward about an edge from the as of the screen then stop to open the organization Overview interface and shop through your recently misused apps, and hook toward the right the bottom of the screen to flip back quickly through those same recently used apps.

You can also swipe up diagonally from either lower corner of the screen to summon Google Assistant, and anytime you want to retreat unrivalled step in whatever you're doing, you can swipe inmost from the left or right edge of your phone's display.

On phones with older Android versions — or those where gesture navigation International Relations and Security Network't enabled — you'll find three buttons along the bottom of your screen that allow tap-friendly shipway of accessing those same basic functions. In that arrangement, Low-level is typically accessible by press and holding the Home key.

One more matter: You've no question seen some scary-seeming stories about Android security. Be aware: Most of that stuff is overly sensationalized and sadly misleading. Malware really isn't a real-world issue on Android, and Google has its own multilayer security system in place to protect you from all sorts of threats — including the most graphic one of all: a lost phone.

Craving flatbottomed more applicative tips and foundational knowledge? My, aren't you a tenacious little monkey! Check into prohibited the following Computerworld guides to continue your Android optimisation education:

  • Android apps: Best of the outdo
  • 8 ways to turn Android into a productiveness powerhouse
  • 16 time-saving Humanoid shortcuts
  • 10 Android settings that'll strengthen your security
  • 44 ways Google Supporter can make you more underspent
  • How to create a skilled Microsoft experience on Android
  • 13 handy hidden shortcuts for Gboard on Android
  • 21 sentence-saving tips for the Chromium-plate Android browser

This article was originally published in August 2022 and last updated in February 2022.

Tributary Editor Jr Raphael serves up tasty morsels about the humanlike incline of technology. Hungry for more? Join him on Twitter surgery sign up for his each week newsletter to get fresh tips and sixth sense in your inbox every Friday.

Right of first publication © 2022 IDG Communications, Inc.