It's about to get much easier to transfer your iPhone data to an Android phone

Currently, if you own an iPhone but have bought one of the best Android phones, transferring your data across is a nightmare. You've got to dig out specific cables, juggle cloud backups, perform a sacrament to long-forgotten gods - but it sounds like that could change very soon.

Apparently, Google is working on a new 'Switch to Android' app which would make it much easier to send all your important files from an iPhone to an Android, just like it is for sending your Android data to an iPhone. This comes from 9to5Google, which got some hands-on time with the app.

The website found an app you can download onto an iPhone, which presumably will have an Android counterpart when it's fully launched, because when you open it you're prompted to scan a QR code on said Android app.

This lets you move loads of data like your contacts, photos, videos, and apps, saving you from having to re-install everything.

Several Android phone makers already have systems like this - for example, Samsung makes it easy for you to transfer everything from one Galaxy handset to a newer one, even transferring your wallpaper and settings. But this new app would make it easier to migrate from iOS to Android, two very different types of phone. 

It's not clear when this app will launch, but by the fact that 9to5Google managed to download and use it, it seems it's nearly ready to go - hopefully, we'll hear more about it in the coming months.

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Analysis: simply a balancing act

Given how annoying it was to send data from an iPhone to an Android phone before, this new app will be a useful tool for people who are moving over from Apple's ecosystem. But it's not exactly a major victory for Google's operating system.

No, it's more of a balancing act to bring Android in line with iOS. Apple has long maintained its 'Move to iOS' app for transferring data to a new iPhone, and its solution was generally a lot easier than Google's.

Well, now both iOS and Android are equally easy to move to, or from, meaning neither operating system has the advantage over the other in this respect.

Of course, depending on your preferences, you might think either Android or iOS has the edge over the other in myriad other ways. But when it comes to transferring from the competition, they're now perfectly even.

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