How Google’s Latest Operating System, Nougat, Makes It Easier Than Ever to Switch to Android
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Google has updated the setup process in Android 7.0 Nougat, adding the ability to restore your phone from an iOS device.
With the release of Nougat, Google has added a new feature that allows users to more easily transfer contacts, photos, emails, music and even favorite apps from an iOS device to an Android device. And as we all know, migrating from one operating system to another is usually an overly complicated and tedious process. Selecting the option to restore from an iOS device in Nougat prompts the user to go to (www.android.com/switch) on their iPhone or iPad.
The data transfer is achieved by creating a Google account — if an iPhone user doesn’t have one — and uploading their data to its cloud service. The uploading process is handled using in-house Google applications. For example, the contacts transfer process involves uploading iCloud contacts to a vCard file, and then importing them into Gmail. Photos and music transferring requires data to be uploaded to Google Photos or Google Play Music Manager. The past few versions of Android have seen Google’s restore process becoming increasingly better. It’s gone from just restoring from a Google account to being able to transfer data from an old Lollipop Android device, AndroidPolice reported.
Ostensibly, this new Nougat feature was implemented to make it easier for iPhone users to switch to Android devices — something that might be happening more. According to the International Business Times, over 45 percent of iPhone users said that they believe Android devices are “more advanced.” But device warfare aside, Apple, for their part, has been offering a similar service for users wanting to switch from an Android to an iPhone or iPad.
Apple’s switching process allows contacts, messages, photos and videos, bookmarks, email accounts and calendar info to be transferred, according to their website. Similarly, free apps will get transferred if they’re available on both the App Store and Google Play.
