Google has tried to make switching from one Android phone to another as easy as possible, with Google services and apps (including Google Drive, for example) doing much of the work in the background.
As we mentioned in the section above, you will have the option to copy data and apps from your old Android phone during the installation process. You don’t have to agree if you don’t want to take over all the content and apps from your last phone, but that’s the only option you have – if you don’t copy the files during installation, you will need to reset your phone to do so in the future.
If you’re ok with it, you can practically clone your old phone to your Wi-Fi network, as long as you have your old phone with you. Alternatively, you can point your new device to an Android backup from Google Drive and get more or less the same result. In either case, all the instructions you need will appear on the screen.
For the Google Drive restore option to work, you must have backed up your old phone to Google Drive in the first place. It’s good practice anyway, and it comes in handy when you’re switching phones. You’ll be prompted to take a Google Drive backup every time you set up a new Android phone, but you can also do it through the “Settings” menu by clicking “System”, then “Advanced”, and finally “Backup”.
Android setup
iOS can also transfer your data to an Android smartphone(Image credit: Future)
How easily you can switch from an iPhone to a brand new Android phone really depends on several factors: how much investment you’ve already made in the Google app ecosystem and how much Apple product you want integrate with your new Android phone.
If you are already using apps like Gmail, Google Keep, Google Maps, Google Photos, and Google Docs on your iPhone, you can continue as before by signing into these apps on your new Android phone. Apple Music also works on Android, while Gmail can be configured to verify Apple’s iCloud email addresses. You can export Apple calendars and contacts for use on Android.
Some parts of Apple’s ecosystem are less difficult to move. The best is to install Google Photos on your iPhone and sync everything with the Cloud before moving to Android. Anything you’ve synced to iMessage will be lost unless you have access to an iPad or Mac to continue viewing your conversations from there.
Google Drive can also move contacts, calendars, photos and videos from iPhone to Android. While you can’t move everything from an iPhone, you can transfer a lot, and if you’re already using Google apps on your Apple device, it’s even easier to switch between devices.
The team’s globetrotter. Clio is always dedicated to analyzing the quality of 5G and Wi-Fi networks around the world. It can rank hotspots as the most reliable VPNs, essential apps for anticipating weather, flight delays, or currency surges. But above all, she loves to compare home automation gadgets that are good to activate when you get home.