Google Quietly Launches Switch To Android App For iPhone Users

Last Updated on April 14, 2022 by Anu Joy

Google has quietly launched its own “Switch to Android” app for iOS users, the search giant’s answer to Apple’s “Move to iOS” app for Android. Google’s new app promises to make it easier to transfer your iPhone data to a new Android device without having to fuss around with cables.

Migrating data between Android devices has always been a fairly straightforward process. You can easily copy your apps, contacts, messages, photos, and more via a USB cable or wirelessly. However, transferring your data from an iPhone to Android has always been a time-consuming and complicated affair, as you had to first back up your data to Google Drive and then restore it manually.

Now that Google has launched its Switch to Android app, the whole ordeal of data migration from iPhone to Android may just get easier.

Switch to Android App Features

According to the description on the App Store, “The Switch to Android app from Google helps you quickly and securely move your most important data types — photos, videos, contacts, and calendar events — to a brand new Android device without fussy cables”.

One feature that appears to be sorely lacking is the ability to transfer messages. The app notes that it will guide you on how to turn off iMessage “so that you don’t miss text messages from friends and family.” Another limitation is that it will not help transfer apps to your new Android device. This could be because apps do not have the permission to scan the user’s iPhone for existing apps.

Before you head over to the App Store to get the new Switch to Android, do note that it is unlisted as of now. It means that you won’t find it if you search for it on your iPhone. However, the app is available for download via this direct link.

There have been rumours that Google has been working to make it easy for users to migrate their data to the company’s platform. The firm had recently updated the Google Photos app to make it easier to copy photos from rival cloud storage services such as Facebook and iCloud. Before the update, photos had to be transferred from the cloud services, and not within the Google Photos app.

Switch to Android: Late To The Party

Google’s Switch to Android app is quite late to the party, considering its competitor Apple had already launched its Move to iOS app for Android users back in 2015. The iPhone maker’s app helps transfer the following data—contacts, message history, camera photos and videos, web bookmarks, mail accounts, and calendars. Comparing Apple’s list with Google’s offerings, the former appears to have the upper hand as it transfers message history, while the latter doesn’t appear to offer the feature.

Have you tried out Google’s Switch to Android app? Was it able to migrate all your data? Let us know in the comments.