Android and iOS both have their own share of weaknesses and strengths. While one excels at multitasking, the other offers quality apps and games and has a flourishing ecosystem. 

There are many reasons why a consumer will prefer Android over iOS, including the ability to allow one to customise the phone to their liking, multitasking freely, and the openness of OS being just a few among them. If you have made the smart jump from iOS to Android, congrats!

Now, if you are looking to get your important data transferred from your iPhone or iPad to your brand new Android device and are scratching your head on how to do so, worry not as we have got you covered. Simply follow the steps below and you will be done in no time.

Contacts

If your contacts are stored on iCloud, then you only need to export them and import them to your Google account.

Step 1: Head over to iCloud.com and login with your Apple ID credentials.

Step 2: Proceed to click on ‘Contacts’ and then press the Ctrl (or Command) + A button to select all your contacts.

Step 3: Click on the cog icon located at the bottom left corner of the display and select the ‘Export vCard’ option. A vcf file containing all your contacts will then be downloaded on your PC.

Step 4: Now, head over to the Google Contacts website and login with your Google account. Use the same account that you will use to sign in on your new Android device.

Step 5: Click on ‘More’ then ‘Import’ and proceed to select the vcf file that was downloaded on your PC from iCloud’s website.

Depending on the number of contacts you have, the importing process can take up to a minute to complete. Once the contacts are imported, all you need to do is sign in using the same Google account on your Android device and the contacts will automatically be synced to your device.

Calendar

Assuming that your calendar entries are already synced to iCloud on your iPhone, we will take advantage of the calendar sharing features to get your entries over to Google Calendar and your new Android device.

Step 1: On iCloud.com, open the Calendar app. Then tap the share button beside the name of the calendar that you want to sync to your Android device and enable the ‘Public Calendar’ option. This will show the public calendar link. Copy it to your clipboard and head over to Google Calendar.

Step 2: In Google Calendar, click on the drop-down arrow located beside ‘Other calendars’ and then select the ‘Add by URL’ option. Proceed to paste the URL of the iCloud calendar in the dialog box that opens up and then press the ‘Add Calendar’ button.

Google Calendar will then automatically import all your calendar entries from the iCloud calendar. Now when you sign in on your new Android device with your Google account, your calendar entries will be synced to the device.

If your calendar entries are not synced to iCloud on your iPhone, simply head over to Settings -> Mail, Contacts, and Calendar on the device. Then proceed to sign in to your existing iCloud account. After a few minutes, iOS will automatically prompt you to merge your calendar entries with the iCloud calendar.

Messages

Sadly, the process to transfer your messages from an iPhone to your new Android device is extremely complex and requires tinkering with some low-level system files on iOS. For your important messages, I will simply recommended you to copy-paste them to Google Keep, Evernote or other similar note taking services. Then simply install the app on your Android device to access the messages you copy pasted.

App data

Due to the sheer number of underlying differences between the two platforms, there is simply no way to transfer over your app data from iOS to Android. This means that you will end up losing all your game progress and other important data when you make the jump from iPhone to Android.

Once you make the transition though to your Android device, all your app and game data will be automatically backed up to Google Drive (on devices running Marshmallow and above).

Almost all the popular apps that you use regularly on iOS are also available on Android, which should help make switching ecosystems easier and make you feel right at home on your new Android device.

There is also a strong possibility that the Android device you have purchased comes with a transfer app built-in that will easily allow you to transfer your data from your iPhone to your Android device. Mostly these apps work as advertised, but in case they fail, you can always follow the steps we have mentioned above.

Facing any trouble while ditching your old iPhone and switching to Android? Drop in a comment below and we will help you out.