Switching from iPhone to Android

Sam Furr
TappableAgency
Published in
4 min readJul 25, 2018

If you’re doing it, this will save you some time!

I’m an apple man, through and through. I get every new phone on launch day (or launch week at least), and I rock a home pod, Air pods, Macbook Pro, iPad Pro, Apple TV, Apple Watches, Thunderbolt Monitors and iMac’s… For nearly a decade might I add! So when I was put on the spot with some Android gesturing questions face to face with a client, and really basic ‘settings’ questions, I failed to answer them. Not good enough!

Running a mobile app agency, Tappable, I should probably know more than I did.

So, shooting straight for the top, I jumped into Android with a Samsung Galaxy S9+. I was actually quite excited about seeing how iCloud has become a dominant force in my life, and how being in the Apple Eco-system truly affects my life, and of course how to get out of it.

Firstly, I must say; Android is pretty awesome! In fact, a hell of a lot better than I thought it was going to be using it as a main phone. The notifications are handled 100 times better (although changes are coming in iOS 12 for Apple users), the battery is remarkable and the camera is noticeably better. It’s worth noting at this point I’m directly comparing the iPhone X with the Galaxy S9+. Not so much Android Vs iOS.

Android does have some really nice touches, if you start using Google apps and services over and above Samsung’s… I mean, who’s ever heard of Bixby? Yet there’s a whole physical button on the side of the phone dedicated to starting it!

So I’m going to save you some time, by telling you a few important headline pieces of info I could have done with pre switching. It’s important to note that Samsung’s Smart Switch app, doesn’t work. Apple encrypt the backups now and Samsung can’t read them. It gets very manual from this point on.

First up: Whatsapp.

Here’s a real bummer. Whatsapp on iOS backs up to iCloud, and On Android it backs up to Google Drive. Therefore, making the switch looses your entire history. All your group chats are there but they’re empty. You just have to get over this one, fast!

Contacts

Trust me, the simplest way is this: Open iCloud in a browser, navigate to your contacts, then click the settings (bottom left) and select all. Then, click export, highlighted blue here:

2 Hours I searched for this solution!

Then open up Google Contacts: https://contacts.google.com/ and login, under ‘more’ on the left you have import. Then simply drag in all the .vcf’s you just exported from iCloud Contacts.

Finally, on your Android device download the Google Contacts app, and BOOM! All contacts now over.

Calendar

Obviously, if you’re in the iCloud world for a decade, you have several calendars shared with various groups. So simply download an app called SmoothSync for iCloud. Login with your iCloud details, and select the calendars you wish to Sync, then select to Sync them with Google Calendar. Simples!

Granted its looks alone can put you off! But it works.

Photos

The holy grail, the mecca, the be all and end all of vast media storage… I couldn’t bear to consider life with multiple places storing my memories. Oddly, this was the simplest to tackle. Download Google Photos app on your iPhone, allow it to Sync your entire library, then download the same app on your Android, and BOOM NUMBER TWO all the memories are ported over. Actually; there’s a strong case to say that Google Photos is better than Apple’s photos anyway!

Keyboard

I type fast, always have an always will. One thing I took for granted was iOS’s ability to know what I’m trying to say when typing, and re-structuring and auto-correcting my sentences almost perfectly every time. So when Samsung’s keyboard smacked me in the face with a ‘computer says no’ every time I expected a word corrected, I had a big problem. This could have been a deal breaker for me, only 3 or 4 days after adopting my S9 I was ready to ditch it. Yes, that bad. The keyboard is pathetic, slow, crammed in, auto-correct felt broken, although it was switched ‘on’ in the settings. So, a great colleague of mine Rory mentioned Gboard, I could have kissed him! Google’s own keyboard (currently in beta) is a marked improvement, and certainly bearable.

The rest…

…you will figure out, learn, and admire in some cases, but resent in others, along your way. I miss handoff and all it’s benefits, and airdrop, WOW I miss that. I certainly consider this phone to be a 2-hander, there’s many apps where the menu button is in the top right, and being a left hander with small(ish) hands, along with the back button being in the bottom right; it takes some getting used to.

I think the biggest piece of advice: Turn off all Samsung things, and revert to Google’s own versions. I can see how the Pixel 2 might be pretty awesome, stocking the phone up with Google’s apps as standard.

I thought I’d hate it, but I don’t. I REALLY don’t. In fact, I kinda like it 🤪

I hope this has been helpful.

Feedback always welcome.

I leave you with this beauty taken on the S9+, snapped whilst walking, on ‘Auto’ mode

Mario isn’t so fast in real life

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Sam Furr
TappableAgency

Musings of a Mobile App Agency founder; tappable.co.uk #Tech #Business #Motivation