If you want to switch from an Android phone to an iPhone, for any reason, there is now a fairly easy way to transfer your data from the Android phone to the iPhone. Next month I will review the opposite.
Moving from Android to Apple: Some of your free apps will transfer if they are available on both the Google Play Store and the App Store. The method to transfer is available as long as your Android device is running Android 4.0 or newer.
Make sure both phones are charged and keep them plugged in.
Make sure WiFi is enabled on the Android device.
If you want to transfer Chrome bookmarks, make sure you have the latest version on your Android phone.
Next, turn on your new iPhone and put it next to your Android device. Follow the onscreen setup instructions on your iPhone. When you get to the Quick Start screen, tap Set Up Without Another [Apple] Device, then keep following the onscreen instructions.
When you get to the Transfer Your Apps & Data screen, tap From Android.
On your Android phone, open the Move to iOS app. Tap Continue, and Agree to the terms and conditions. Decide whether to Automatically Send or Don’t Send app data with Apple. Tap Continue and enable Location permissions if needed, and likewise for Notification permissions.
On your iPhone, tap Continue when the Move from Android screen appears. A 10- or six-digit code will appear. Enter that code on your Android device.
Your iPhone will create a temporary Wi-Fi network; when prompted, tap Connect on your Android device to join it. Wait for the Transfer Data screen to show up.
Now, choose the content from your Android device you’d like to transfer, and tap Continue. Leave your iPhone and Android alone — and near each other — until the loading bar on your iPhone is complete. The more content you have to move, the longer this process will take.
Once the loading bar is complete on your iPhone, tap Done on your Android phone. Then hit Continue on your iPhone, and follow the onscreen instructions to finish setting up your new device.
Your files, photos, contacts and more should be on your new iPhone now, but note this process won’t work for transferring music, books and PDFs. You’ll need to do that manually.
Tip of the month
How to leave a group chat on an iPhone or an Android phone
It’s great to hear good news from family/friends, but you don’t always want to see the comments from the other 10 people the text was sent to. Here are ways to leave those chats.
On an iPhone, open Messages and go to the chat thread you want to leave. At the top of the screen are conversation controls, a group of icons with the participants. Tap this to open a pop-up menu. As long as your conversation has four or more participants, iOS gives you the ability to tap Leave this Conversation with red text. If your chat has three or fewer participants though, the option is grayed out, but you can tap Hide Alerts to prevent the conversation from notifying you further. Tapping Hide Alerts also allows you to mute a conversation, letting you keep access to a chat without necessarily leaving it.
On an Android phone using Google Messages, visit the chat thread you want to leave. Tap the conversation’s name to bring up the Group Details menu. At the bottom of the screen tap the Leave Group button. Unlike with iMessage, you can leave chats with as few as three participants. If you want to just mute notifications, tap Notifications on the Group Details screen to bring up a window with notifications controls. This includes options to make the conversation stay Silent to prevent it from ringing your chat, and if you tap Lock Screen, a pop-up menu will give you the option to prevent notifications. Tap Don’t show notifications at all to enable.
