Apple and Google prepare a gift for Android/iPhone switchers
Apple and Google have always paid lip service to the perfectly natural human desire to swap personal data and other digital assets from Android to iOS and vice versa, but it seems pressure from regulators (for once doing something right) has forced both Big Tech companies to make it easy to switch platforms.
It’s a welcome concession to the fact that in our increasingly digital lives, we are also increasingly becoming our data, which is why it should be easier to transport our information safely, securely, and easily between platforms.
Now Apple and Google have worked together to do just that. At least, we hope they have.
Migration without risks
A report on 9to5Google tells us the latest Android beta boasts a brand new tool to make it easier to switch between iPhone and Android. Apple is working on a corresponding tool to make it easier on that platform too.
This is a continuation of work that started last year, partly in response to regulators who demanded the mobile systems interoperate better together.
At that time, Google already had Android Switch for iOS and Apple offered Move to iOS, but neither solution did everything, and neither moved all your data. It meant that a migration in either direction offered more user friction than most people wanted to endure. Yes, it’s possible to upgrade from Android to iPhone, or head in the other direction, but not every item in your “digital shoebox” is transported by either process.
While the process has improved over the years, you must manually fetch apps, music, books, and PDFs. (This isn’t unique to Apple and Google, of course — just ask anyone attempting to migrate from the ever-increasingly expensive Microsoft 365 suite to Google Workspace for fresh tales of woe.)
Now being tested
What’s new, or seems to be, is that Apple and Google have collaborated to develop a far more seamless switching experience. This should facilitate moving photos, videos, bookmarks, and other core information. We must hope that the system will also shift passwords and passkeys between both platforms, though I imagine there are significant security obstacles that must be overcome to achieve that.
Google has begun testing the migration tool in a new Android Canary build for its Pixel devices. Apple reportedly intends to introduce support for the tools on iPhones in a future iOS 26 point upgrade, though it isn’t visible in the current testing builds.
This means that at present, few outside the Apple/Google testing labs really know how the migration management tools are going to work. We also don’t know the extent to which the process can be managed by IT — will the tools be accompanied by new APIs so device management tools can prevent this kind of migration to protect against data exfiltration from managed devices?
When to expect it?
We do have a rough idea of the implementation time scale Apple may have in mind, because it told us what to expect after WWDC 2024. Back then, it said it intended to introduce tools that would enable user-friendly migration between iPhones and Android in late 2025.
Eagle-eyed calendar users will already have recognized that this suggests these tools may possibly turn out to be a late-arriving addition to iOS 26.2 that hasn’t featured in the test builds, but are more likely to appear in a subsequent upgrade — though the fact it is only now being tested by Google hints that perhaps we will need to wait a little longer than originally proposed for a consistent and robust version of the tools to arrive.
It is important, of course, not to forget what has forced Apple and Google to make the move to reducing friction when migrating between the two platforms. As recognized gatekeepers for mobile experiences in a growing number of nations, the companies must now do more to open up their systems.
While some of what they are being made to do by regulators seems likely to damage user experiences, security, and privacy, not all of it does, and introducing tools to make migration between the platforms easier is a logical step that will benefit customers in the long run.
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