Using app for transfer can take some time.
I am definitely no expert when it comes to smartphones, having acquired my first, a Samsung Galaxy S5, late last December. I can say that owning one has drastically lessened the amount of time I’ve spent lost and enabled my Twitter addiction. At the time, I, of course, considered the pros and cons of getting an Android device versus an iPhone. I decided on the Galaxy mostly because it was waterproof, and I’m clumsy. But Nick here at MacSources has been trying to convince me since I started writing for him in February that I made a mistake not going with iOS––so much so that he recently sent me an iPhone 6 Plus. I’ve been using the iPhone for four days now, and I’m very much still getting accustomed to it, but I thought I would write of my initial impressions and my journey from Android to iPhone.
I was hesitant, at first, to use the Move to iOS application (the only Apple app in the Google Play store, haha) because of its 30,000+ one-star reviews. But most of the reviews, both positive and negative, consist of people’s general opinions of Android vs. iOS and not actual substance. So I went with it, knowing that if it messed up or didn’t work, I had everything backed up in a few places just in case.
Honestly, I was unimpressed with the application. It is a straightforward process, and it does basically everything it promises to do. There are a few bugs, however. The most annoying of these was that messages got scrambled in the crossover. There weren’t a lot of them––just enough to make me check to make sure I was texting the correct person/number for the rest of the day.
One more con for me was that you are only able to use this application to move content during the iPhone’s setup process, so it’s useless if you’ve already activated your phone unless you want to wipe your device and start over again. This particular inconvenience happened to me. I went into a Verizon store to get a SIM card and activate the iPhone, and the associate there wanted to check to make sure everything worked correctly before I left and quickly set up the phone. When I got home, I then had to reset the iPhone in order to try this application. This may not be any particular trial for most people, but I feel my experience with this was colored by the fact that my router decided to not let both phones connect to Wi-Fi at the same time until the next day, leaving me : for a bit.
So, final verdict on the Move to iOS app: use it when you switch over, but know that it can take a while depending on how much stuff you need to transfer, as you cannot use either device while the app is working. Also disregard where it says, “No need to save your stuff elsewhere,” just in case.
You can imagine how relieved I was after the whole process was complete and I had time to actually enjoy the iPhone.
The learning curve was pretty gentle on me, surprisingly. Or maybe not surprisingly. Apple products are pretty user-friendly, I’ve found. I’ve played around with settings and apps, made calls, sent messages––all with ease. One particular difference still irks me: I don’t like the keyboard. Trying to use the phone in landscape is difficult for my small hands, so I’ve been using it almost exclusively in profile orientation. I have to switch keyboards to punctuate anything, and that makes me sad. I love commas.
I apologize if you were expecting me to have more of an opinion on the subject of Android vs. iOS. Honestly, I think both work well. I love how seamlessly the iPhone works with my MacBook (without having to use an application to connect the two, like I did with my Galaxy), but I also appreciated Android’s freedom of customization (sometimes you just want your home screen to look like a spaceship command panel). I haven’t decided which I like better quite yet. I got so accustomed to my Android device that everything is all shiny and new and different still. Update to follow.
For more information on how to transfer from Android to iOS, visit support.apple.com.
Download on GooglePlay: Android to iOS
