Google’s ‘Switch to Android’ app is now officially available.
2 min readGoogle’s ‘Switch to Android’ app is now officially available.
Google’s ‘Switch to Android’ app is now officially available.
The long-rumored “Switch to Android” app for iOS users has been quietly released on the App Store.
The app helps users migrate important content – such as contacts, calendars, photos and videos – from the iPhone to the new Android device.
The app was technically live before, but it wasn’t “officially” available to App Store users through a search or discovery mechanism. Now, that’s changing, Google said.
The Switch to Android app began rolling out to the public around 6 p.m. Monday.
The company said it expects the process to reach 10% of Play Store users by the end of Tuesday, April 19, and 100% in the coming weeks.
The app reportedly supports all the same data types as Google Drive.
Previously, Google suggested that the process of moving from iPhone to Android involved having users back up their contacts, calendars, photos and videos through the Google Drive iOS app before switching devices.
Google says the new Switch to Android app does the same thing, but offers a “faster, more streamlined” experience.
Google also provides a way to physically connect devices to move more content, including music, audio, wallpapers, alarms, call logs, device settings, and free apps.
The new app’s App Store description explains that it can be transferred in lieu of setting up tedious connection cables.
In addition to mobile data, the new Switch to Android app offers other instructions on the transfer process — like how to unenroll iMessage to continue getting text messages on the new Android device.
Google said it plans to add support for more data types to the app in the coming months.
Transferring data from the iPhone via the new app will initially support Google Pixel devices as target devices, but support for other OEM models will be added later.
Google has previously made other efforts to make it easier for users to transfer their content to its own platforms and services through backend development.
This includes a recent update to the Google Photos app that provides mobile device owners with a way to copy photos from rival cloud storage services including iCloud, Facebook and others.