back to article Google 'Switch to Android' app surfaces in iOS App Store

Google has started rolling out an iOS app to help those using Apple devices move their data to Android systems. The Chocolate Factory's "Switch to Android" app had been unofficially available in the iOS App Store to those with the direct link for about a week but is now published for anyone to try. "The Switch to Android app …

  1. safetysam

    The best thing about the internet

    The best thing about the internet is that it gives everyone in the world an opportunity to be heard.

    The worst thing about the internet is that it gives everyone in the world an opportunity to be heard.

    A one star review of this Data Moving application:

    "Sketchy! AVOID! Privacy breach!

    Downloaded it to give it a shot and it ask you for everything! All your private data! Pictures, private messages, etc.. the privacy policy on their terms of service are sketchy and not clear! They’re trying to hide the fact that they can access your data with nonsense claims! No! I’m not going to give you my data! I’d rather copy it offline instead of this sketchy app!"

    Never - wait, no sorry, please change, internet.

    1. F. Frederick Skitty Silver badge

      Re: The best thing about the internet

      So that luser wants the app to move all their data from one platform to another without reading the data? FFS

      1. doublelayer Silver badge

        Re: The best thing about the internet

        In their defense, just because it's a Google app, they're probably right that the privacy policy is a nightmare to understand (and also one if you succeed). I'm not sure they understood that given the rest of their comment though.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The best thing about the internet

      Was the review by a Mr T. Cook?

  2. Rafael #872397

    Google, which supports sideloaded apps on Android devices

    Supports, tolerates, or can't stop people from doing it?

    1. Graham Dawson Silver badge

      Re: Google, which supports sideloaded apps on Android devices

      It's an explicit permission that you can turn off and on in settings. They could easily stop it if they didn't want it to happen.

    2. doublelayer Silver badge

      Re: Google, which supports sideloaded apps on Android devices

      Tolerates. They won't turn it off, because it's a useful lever for antitrust cases, but they'll hide it and try to make sideloaded apps less capable. It's still a lot better than platforms that don't have the option.

  3. TeeCee Gold badge

    ...how Apple handled the app approval process.

    Probably like someone drinking a cup of warm sick while sure they'd be crucified if they didn't.

    Let's face it I'm sure that they wanted to turn it down, but they knew that the resulting legal actions for anticompetitive practice would be indefensible.

  4. VoiceOfTruth Silver badge

    One thing (amongst others) that I don't understand about iCloud...

    I have a couple of Macs and very occasionally use iCloud. If I browse to icloud.com, what has Apple done to make their web site so slow? It literally takes seconds to appear. This is just the login page.

    1. Blackjack Silver badge

      Re: One thing (amongst others) that I don't understand about iCloud...

      Apple tracks you too.

  5. Nick Ryan Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Good

    Google should have an app like that in the iOS App Store and Apple should have an equivalent in the Google Play Store. Same goes for any other similar vendors too.

    ...and just as importantly they must not put blocks in the way of making these work.

    Naturally, Microsoft would never have done anything similar, they'd have only just about vomited out a barely working "come to Microsoft and we'll change things so regularly and obscure things as much as possible that you can't leave even when you want to" type app.

    1. ThatOne Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: Good

      Most Windows users can't escape, not without forfeiting most if not all of their programs. Obviously it's easy if you only ever use email and a browser, but if you have invested in expensive pro/semi-pro programs (and the time to master them) it definitely hurts to just throw them away on a whim, often without any chance to find a replacement.

      Windows is the Hotel California of OSses...

      I had to abandon several thousand $ of pro software when I refused to go Win8 and switched to Linux. :-(

      1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

        Re: Good

        Yes, it is painful alright. As much as I like LibreOffice (and similar) they often feel very clunky and just unfinished/unpolished compared to the MS equivalents - which irritate for different reasons.

        1. ThatOne Silver badge

          Re: Good

          At least there is a possible replacement. One can argue about the qualities of Open/LibreOffice and MS Office (and I have written literally thousands of pages in Word so I tend to feel at home in it), but there is no denying you can do about the same in both. Other programs don't have any equivalent in Linuxland (which one has to admit is very IT-centered).

          The most obvious example are games. Sorry, Steam doesn't count, it's a here-today, gone-tomorrow rental service. When I pay for a game, I expect being able to keep playing it till the end of my life.

      2. yetanotheraoc Silver badge

        Re: Good

        Yes, in the past I was burned by some Windows applications, not even changing OS. So now I don't take up any application on any platform unless it has the ability to import from / export to plain text, or common image format, etc. At a minimum there needs to be an API -- it's acceptable if I have to write some code to do the import/export. And then I periodically do the export as part of my backup strategy. Which is also a fine solution when switching from android to ios (did that without help from an app), or back again (might do that someday).

      3. doublelayer Silver badge

        Re: Good

        That's not really unique to Windows, and not Microsoft's fault. Lots of programs only bother to write for one OS and didn't create compatible cross-platform versions. This works for Linux too; I've seen lots of open source software where porting to Windows or Mac OS wasn't in the plans. If you've invested in software, migrating to a system that can't run it is always at least a little painful, regardless of which systems you're using. Fortunately, we have VMs and emulation layers (Wine/Proton, WSL, etc) to try to make that easier.

  6. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

    So how about a way to transfer purchases between platforms? You can transfer your phone number. You can transfer data. But that's useless without a way to transfer purchases. Regulators?

    1. ThatOne Silver badge

      Greed. If you want that app to run on my platform, pay me.

    2. David Nash Silver badge

      To be fair, it's a different product that has had to be produced separately. If I were an app developer/seller (which I am not) I would hope that if someone wanted it on a different platform they would pay for that product separately. Maybe some discount could apply, but I hardly think it's a matter for "Regulators".

    3. doublelayer Silver badge

      "So how about a way to transfer purchases between platforms?"

      That's up to the app developers. Those who planned for this store your purchases in a platform-independent way, which could either mean using an account on their system or with a license key they've given to you. Activating it on a different platform just means using that mechanism to prove you purchased. When a developer doesn't plan for this, it's hardly the fault of the store operator. If the store operators acted to ban the practice, that would be an issue for the regulators, but so far, they have focused on getting a cut instead (a different issue for regulators but not blocking this request).

  7. innominatus
    Joke

    News just in

    Just spotted on both the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store a "Switch to Windows Phone" app

    1. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
      Windows

      Re: News just in

      I assume it bricks the target device ...

  8. Marty McFly Silver badge
    Linux

    How about...

    ...a 'Migrate to Linux' on the Windows App store. Now you've got something useful!

  9. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

    Meh

    Google has used their control over Android APIs to whittle away the advantages of Android without adding any value. It's becoming a buggy clone of iOS. MicroSd use is broken. Swapping the OS keeps getting harder. Custom UI is limited to changing the launcher, and Google has been eroding support for that too by withholding API access.

  10. DS999 Silver badge

    I would bet that all of Apple's gains were at the expense of Android

    Those "other mobile OSes" shrinking to 1% are the last gasps of the feature phone market. No one is switching from a $20 feature phone to an iPhone, those people are switching to a low end Android.

    There's limited ability for Apple to make further market share gains though, even the SE is quite expensive for much of the world let alone the rest of Apple's line.

    The number of people with the potential to switch in either direction likely decreases every year, it is probably only the ones who have switched one way or the other at least once in the past who remain ripe for switching. Someone who has been in the Android or iOS camp for an unbroken decade or more would seem to be very unlikely to change their ways at this point. An app might make it more convenient, but won't make it more likely.

  11. X5-332960073452
    FAIL

    Android to Android

    Well this better work better than (see title).

    Last time I did it for a customer, instructions say connect your charging cable to old device, then connect it to the new device.

    I've never seen a USB micro to USB C (but they are available), and how many average users are going to have one (spoiler alert - NONE)

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