How to switch from iPhone to Android and keep all your stuff

Switching to a phone within the same ecosystem is a breeze, thanks to cloud synchronization and format compatibility, but what happens when you want to get a new handset that runs on a different operating system? This a very common case, and is encountered when people are trying to switch from iOS to Android.

This can become a convoluted process, so we thought we should give you some good tips. In this tutorial we will show you the best ways to transfer all your data from an iPhone to an Android device. Let’s jump right into the goods.

How to Transfer Contacts

This process’ simplicity will highly depend on your previous practices for syncing contacts. Are you synchronizing your contacts to your Gmail account? If so, getting your contacts on your brand new Android smartphone is a breeze! All you have to do is enter your Google account. All your saved numbers will be automatically downloaded.

If you don’t synchronize your contacts to Gmail, however, you will have to work a little harder. The easiest way would probably be to use iCloud to get a .vcf file and then import that to your Android phone (or Google Contacts).

1. On your iPhone, go to your Settings app and select “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”.
2. Go to Settings > iCloud and turn on “Contacts”.
3. Your contacts will upload to Apple’s cloud services shortly.
4. Now use a browser to go to iCloud.com and log in with your Apple ID.
5. Select “Contacts” and then click on the gear icon in the lower-left corner.
6. Click on “Select all”.
7. Click on the gear again and select “Export vCard…”.
8. When the .vcf file downloads, you can either import that file to your Google Contacts or straight to your phone.
9. If you want to use Google Contacts, just go to contacts.google.com and click on “Import” and then “Go to old contacts”. Click on the “More” button and select “Import”. Select the file and you are done.
10. To import the .vcf file directly to your new smartphone, just get the file into your phone using any methods such as transferring via a microSD card or by hooking up your phone to your PC. Once the file is on your device, you simply open your Phone app and tap on the menu button. There should be an option to “Import/export”. Select the file and be on your way.