Moving from an Android to a new Android is a relatively effortless endeavor. Your Android device and everything you use it for are linked to your Google account. All you need to do is sign-in on the new phone and import all of the relevant cloud-based information. You also have access to the Clone Phone app. Moving from iOS to Android is decidedly more complicated. Switch to Android hopes to make it that much easier to join Google’s smartphone OS ecosystem.
The app was first teased in July 2021. Reports surfaced that Google was developing an app to rival Apple’s Move to iOS app for Android devices. Switch to Android has now been soft-launched on the App Store, but you can only access it through a direct link as the app is within Apple’s new unlisted application feature.
The app will ask you to scan a QR code visible on your new Android device during Google’s setup and restore process. Here things get a little messy. It isn’t possible, from what we’ve experienced, to get past this QR code step. The setup process stops there and needs a little more work, it seems. However, you can understand the basic idea behind the app. Essentially, your new Android phone is supposed to create a hotspot that your iPhone can connect to. Once connected, the iPhone is set to transfer data wirelessly to the Android.
The App Store listing gives a preview in images of what the finished process will look like, and it looks pretty seamless. Once setup is complete, the app kindly reminds you to disable iMessage. This is so that messages from friends with iPhones won’t be scattered to the quantum winds but will instead come to your Android as an SMS. Once that’s done, all that’s left is to get your iCloud data to Google Drive and Google Photos. Hit the blue Start request button, and the app will launch Safari and open an iCloud support page. From there, hit Request to transfer a copy of your data, and you’ll be good to go.
Google is actively marketing this new app and trying to motivate iPhone users to migrate to their new in-house Google Pixel devices. The operating system that the new Pixel uses, Android 12, makes it even easier to switch from iOS. Speaking of all things Google, they’ve recently given Google News a brand new look on Android. Why not check it out?
