Tired of Your iPhone or Android? Give the Other Side a Chance

How to change from your Android to an iPhone

Apple makes a Move to iOS app that’s available in the Google Play app store.

Both the iPhone and Android must be plugged into power and Wi-Fi turned on. Make sure you have ample storage on the new phone to accommodate the data coming in, including any data that may be stored on a microSD card on the Android phone.

Start the iPhone setup and on a QuickStart screen that appears, tap Set Up Without Another Device. Follow the onscreen prompts. On the Transfer Your Apps & Data screen, tap From Android.

Back on the Android phone, launch Move to iOS, tap Continue and agree to the terms and conditions. Apple will also ask if you want to share app data and certain location and notification permissions, which is optional.

Wait for a 6- to 10-digit code to appear on the iPhone; enter the code on the Android. The iPhone will set up temporary Wi-Fi. Apple says you can safely ignore an alert that may appear on the Android device that indicates you have a weak internet connection. Tap Connect.

From the transfer data screen that appears, choose the content you want to lift off the Android phone. Keep the devices close and plugged in, and exercise patience. This will likely take a while.

How to transfer from iPhone to Android

Turn on your new Android phone and make sure it and the iPhone are unlocked and fully charged. You’ll also want to make sure you have ample storage on the new phone to accommodate data coming over from your old phone.

Android phones vary, and so do connection methods. If your new phone is a Samsung Galaxy, fetch a Samsung app from the iPhone App Store called Smart Switch. On other Android phones, download an app, also in the App Store, called Switch To Android.

I went through this drill on a Samsung Galaxy S24. After getting past initial privacy and terms and conditions screens during setup, you come to a screen about transferring settings, accounts and so on from another phone or tablet.

1. Tap iPhone or iPad and connect to a Wi-Fi network.

2. From the Copy Data from your iPhone or iPad screen, tap Next.

3. On the Samsung phone, tap Next and then Allow if you’re OK with the list of permission requests that appears on the screen.

You’re given the option to connect by cable, which is the fastest and recommended method, or wirelessly. If you choose cable, connect the two phones via a compatible USB-C to USB-C or Lightning to USB-C. You may need an adapter.

The new and old phone will have a bit of back and forth. Open Smart Switch on the iPhone and when prompted, tap Trust, enter your iPhone passcode and then Next on the Galaxy. Screens on both phones will give you some idea of your progress.

You eventually get to select the data you want to transfer among calls and contacts, messages, apps, settings, images, videos and so on. When satisfied, chose Transfer.

If you choose the wireless route instead, select either Transfer wirelessly or Get data from iCloud. If the latter, enter your iCloud credentials.

If you choose Transfer wirelessly, open the Smart Switch app on iPhone, select whether you want to give full or partial access to your contacts, calendar, reminders, photos and so on and when satisfied, tap Let’s go. Scan the QR code that appears on the Samsung and tap Join to complete the connection from old phone to new.

As with going from Android to iPhone, exercise patience. The transfer could take a while, especially if you have a heavy data lift.

Bonus tip: Be aware that not everything will move

Whichever direction you’re transferring data, iOS to Android or the other direction, not everything will come through seamlessly.

Moving to Android, your FaceTime and voicemail history won’t make it. Nor will any effects created through the Messages app, or music you bought in the iTunes store.

If you've purchased a lot of iTunes content, consider converting your old iPhone into a bespoke iPod. New ones haven’t been for sale since mid-2022. Any streaming subscriptions won’t be affected.

In a move to an iPhone, Apple says you may have to manually move over books, music and PDFs.

If any apps are missing, search the App Store or Google Play stores to find the proper versions of apps or potential substitutes for what was left behind. Apps that you had to pay to download — these days that’s fewer than 5 percent of all apps — will have to be bought again.