Summary
Why Android?If you haven't bought your new Android yetVideoTools from manufacturers and GoogleTransferring your photos and videosTransferring your musicTransferring your contacts and calendarTransferring your text messagesTransferring your WhatsApp messagesTransferring your appsCommentsGot a brand new Android device? Or maybe you just picked up an old smartphone, because your iPhone is broken? Either way, welcome to Android! You will love. But where to start ? Follow our guide!
Switching from an iPhone to an Android is not that complicated, but it does require a bit of effort. Our guide is organized by sections including recommendations on Android smartphones, many practical tips, tools to transfer your data, or practical things to know about the Google OS. Good reading !
Why Android?
This is a question that comes up again and again. Already, know that it is not because you tested Android 5 years ago that you know this system. It has evolved a lot since then, it is much more refined and some devices have excellent value for money. Even a 200 euro model offers a good user experience.
The first justification for migrating to Android is the desire for change. However, on Android, we have a choice, a lot of choice.
But it's also customization that awaits you once your phone is in your pocket. On Android, you can change everything, from the application launcher, to the unlock screen, through the SMS application, the photo gallery, the default web browser or the telephone application...
Finally… Stop prejudices! Android is now very stable, always more secure and accessible. The system is constantly evolving in order to erase the few early mistakes from which it may have actually suffered. Regarding security, what you may hear is not always reassuring... By following our advice, nothing will happen to you and your smartphone will be well protected.
If you haven't purchased your Android smartphone yet
If you're looking to buy your first Android phone (or replace your old one), we recommend reading reviews of today's flagship models from Samsung, Huawei, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Honor, Google…. but the best is to consult our buying guides.
You will also find the buying guides by price:
Now that you have an Android smartphone, here's how to transfer your data from an iPhone.
The video tutorial
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Tools from manufacturers and Google
There are many paid tools. Please note, in this guide we have exclusively chosen free methods. These methods use online services, but we have also found alternatives that save you from going through external servers. Finally, before starting, here are the tools offered by the manufacturers; they are quite comprehensive and will save you time.
Note that there are many methods to synchronize and back up your data on Android. Some manufacturers such as Samsung or Google even offer, when starting the new smartphone for the first time, to connect it with the old one via the device's USB port to transfer data directly.
The Google tool allows for example to transfer applications, contacts, calendar events, photos - videos, music, SMS messages, iMessages, etc.
Transfer your photos and videos
Switching from iPhone to Android doesn't mean you have to leave behind all those precious photos and videos. It would be horrible to lose them when switching to Android, right? You could probably do things the old fashioned way and transfer the files manually...it works and it saves having to go through an online service. Plug your iPhone into your computer, transfer your photos and videos…and do the same the other way around with your Android.
Or you can simply take advantage of cloud storage services which are very convenient. As on Apple devices with iCloud Photos, Google and Amazon also offer their own equivalent services.
Google Photos and Amazon Photos
We mainly recommend Google Photos, Apple indeed offers a function to automatically transfer photos from iCloud to an album. On the other hand, we must not forget that Google Photos albums have a limit of 20,000 photos per album. This does not block the transfer, but your photos and videos will no longer be listed in the Apple Album.
Google Photos allows you to upload and download high quality photos and sync them to smartphones. However, the storage is no longer unlimited as it was previously. You are entitled to 15 GB of free storage.
Google Photos
Download Google Photos for FreeAPKYou can also upload your photos to Google Photos using the Google app directly:
And for an alternative to Google, Amazon Photos offers a similar, unlimited system for Prime members.
Android File Transfer
To transfer files from a Mac to an Android, and vice versa, it is often necessary to use Android File Transfer (from Honeycomb). macOS not being natively compatible with Android smartphones connected via USB. Simple and effective, it will allow you to use your Android device as an external storage device to recover your photographs or store files like on a PC.
The download is available at this address on the official Google website. If you find Android File Transfer's interface too austere or too "dated", you will find two alternatives in this article as well as many handy tools for Mac users.
Transfer iTunes Music to Android
When you switch from an iPhone to an Android smartphone, you can still transfer your music the old fashioned way by manually moving files from phone to phone. That said, for some of you, it's probably easier to upload your tracks to YouTube Music for easy access from the cloud.
Suppose you are using iTunes on your PC. Be sure to go to iTunes and download all purchased titles to your phone. It's quite simple, you have to do it from iTunes on PC or for Macs that are running old macOS systems. Since macOS Catalina, iTunes has been merged into the Music app. Your iPhone appears in the Finder to manage certain files.
As Apple indicates on its site, it is necessary to consolidate its library and locate the files.
- Open iTunes and from the menu bar at the top of your computer screen or at the top of the iTunes window, choose File > Library > Organize Library.
- Select “Consolidate Files”.
The next step is to find the iTunes Media folder:
Then just use YouTube Music to upload all your music online. It will sync across all Android devices linked to your account. Be sure to pin or download the songs you want to listen to offline.
You can also take the opportunity to switch to an online service like Spotify, Deezer, YouTube Music… or Apple Music which all work on Android. Your Apple Music credentials can be used to use Apple Music on your Android.
The case of ringtones
Ringtones you purchased from iTunes can be retrieved just as easily as music. Just go to the Ringtones section in the iTunes program. You will notice that the file extension for a ringtone on iOS is .m4r while on an Android device… the extension is .m4a.
This is the main reason to change the extension when ringtone files need to be transferred from iPhone to Android and vice versa. You just need to use any compatible converter, good news: the Internet is full of them! With a simple search "m4r to m4a" on Google, you will find what you are looking for.
Transfer Contacts and Calendar from iPhone to Android
contacts
How easy this process is will depend heavily on your past contact syncing practices. Do you synchronize your contacts with your Gmail account? If you already use Google, transferring your contacts from iPhone to Android is a piece of cake! All you have to do is enter your Google account. All your saved numbers will be automatically downloaded.
The iCloud website
If you don't sync your contacts with Gmail, however, you'll need to follow these tips. Probably the easiest way to transfer your iPhone address book to Android would be to use iCloud to get a .vcf file and then import it to your phone (or Google Contacts).
On iCloud you can recover the .vcf file
If Google's tools don't scare you, you can also use the Google Drive app — we've mentioned this method many times before, but it works really well.
Schedule
As was the case with contacts, your calendar can also be synchronized with your Google account, but this will only be practical if you have done this from the start. You don't want to manually edit all your calendar entries, there is another method to forward all your events. And for a change… we'll be using iCloud once again.
You will need to allow iCloud to sync your events. This happens on your iPhone, just like Contacts.
Once the synchronization is activated, you can go to the iCloud site. For the calendar you prefer, check Public calendar in the options provided. Copy the share URL that appears below.
In a new web browser tab or window, paste the copied URL. You can do this from your PC browser and retrieve the calendar.ics file which will be transferred to your new Android smartphone. You can also transfer the URL to your Android smartphone and open it from the browser, that also works.
Transfer SMS from iPhone to Android
Contrary to what we have seen previously, this step can be much more laborious... But you may want to keep your precious conversations and recover them on your new Android smartphone. Fortunately, it is possible.
One of the easiest methods is to use the free iSMS2droid application, but it is not functional for everyone. It is also necessary to save your SMS on iTunes on PC and to find the good file.
iSMS2droid - iPhone SMS Import
Download iSMS2droid - iPhone SMS Import for freeAPKBack up your iPhone from a Mac or PC. Next, you will need to locate the iOS backup on your computer to find the file corresponding to the iOS SMS database.
On PC, open user folder C:\Users\VotreNomdUtilisateur\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\ and open the most recent backup folder.
On Mac, from Finder, use the keyboard shortcut Shift+Command+G or click on File then Go to folder… and enter the following path: Users/VotreNomdUtilisateur/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup .
You then need to locate the file 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28 in the directory. We advise you to use the search integrated into the OS.
All you have to do is transfer this file to your new smartphone with File Explorer on Windows and Android File Transfer on Mac, download the iSMS2droid application on your Android and import the messages.
Whichever method you use, remember to deactivate iMessage before making the change. If you leave it on, SMS and MMS messages may continue to be sent on your old iPhone. Apple sends an iMessage instead of an SMS or MMS when it detects that you are using iOS. This is a problem that happens much more often than you think for users who migrate from Apple's OS to Google's.
To turn it off, go to Settings > Messages and turn off iMessage. You should also go to Settings > Facetime and turn it off. If you no longer have the phone, you can ask Apple to delete your iPhone from iMessage here.
Transfer your WhatsApp messages
WhatsApp is working on it, but there is no magic way to transfer all of your WhatsApp messages and chats from iPhone to Android.
There is, however, a method in the meantime. It consists of exporting and importing the discussions one by one. You must go to each chat you want to export, in Contact info > Export chat. Retrieve the archive any way you want, via email or the cloud. On your new Android smartphone, download WhatsApp and log in. Next, uninstall the app, download all sent chat backups and place them on the Android device in one of your internal storage folders. When you go to install and connect your WhatsApp again, the chats will appear on your app.
There are also third-party solutions that allow you to export and import your messages, but these are third-party software that handle your personal data, we advise you not to use them.
Transfer apps from iOS to Android
To transfer your applications… it's not that simple. You can find almost all iOS apps and games on Android. Just look for them on the Play Store, but you will have to checkout for paid apps. We advise you to read our guide to the best Android apps.
The best apps for your new Android smartphone or tabletYou have just received or given yourself an Android smartphone or tablet and you may want to take full advantage of it. So it's time to choose the right apps to install. Here is a selection of the best…Read More
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