Apple is good at what they do. They make products that are easy to set up and use, but, before you know it, you feel entirely trapped in their ecosystem. Now, for many of us, that’s not so bad; the ecosystem has a lot of perks, and life seems pretty good here. But for those of us looking for another tech opportunity, it can seem, well, impossible. You might want a Galaxy Z Flip, but your texts would all be—gasp—green. Either way, just do it. Okay, go to Android.
Listen, I know – the jump from iPhone to Android seems great. Apple sets strategic barriers in real life when replacing SIMs. When you connect your number to a non-Apple phone, you immediately lose the ability to send and receive iMessage and FaceTime calls to those numbers. If you have other Apple products, your friends may still be able to contact you using these methods, but they should be contacted via your associated Apple ID email.
This is a donkey disease for many reasons. In particular, among them, your Apple devices outside of the iPhone may not be connected like a smartphone. If you do not have a mobile iPad, you must connect to wifi before receiving the latest iMessage group chat messages or being able to receive a FaceTime call. Even if you leave your devices connected to the hotspot on your new phone, the setup is less convenient than constantly connecting to the iPhone.
Speaking of other Apple devices, make sure your phone no longer works with them. If you’re used to handy features like AirDrop, Handoff, iCloud and other Apple connectivity benefits, this will disappear on Android. Most of the things you buy on your iPhone through your Apple ID are also stuck on the platform, so you have to buy back apps and games like Minecraft or FiLMiC Pro.
You can make do just fine switching from iPhone to Android
If you want to try another phone; if there is a new technology that looks great; If the company offers features that Apple can’t, do so. This is not the end of the world. You may know the people who turned the group chat into green and projected each iMessage response into the text. And sure, there are failures, there are jokes, but your phone is great. He does things that your friends’ phones don’t do. Plus, it’s yours. Who cares?
But here’s my advice: Try to persuade your friends to agree to a third-party chat application. This can be challenging; Switching chat applications is not something people want to do, especially for the most part. However, it helps if you choose a platform that most, if not all, already have. In many cases, that’s going to be a Meta property—WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger are likely your best bets to rich text and video calls no matter what phone everyone has.
If you use a Google Account for your digital life, you’ll find the switch all the easier. Since Google makes Android, it’s a bit like already having your toe into the Google ecosystem. If you already use services like Google Photos, Gmail, Google Drive, you might feel right at home on your new Android. Plus, most subscriptions you have through iOS can be accessed on their Android counterpart without any extra costs, which is definitely one perk to everything being free to download these days. I’ve outlined here a few tips for transferring between iPhone and Android to make the transfer much easier.
Look, there is a whole world of phones. Google, Samsung, OnePlus, Motorola and even Sony are creating unique, exciting devices that add new features and capabilities every year. If you are looking for a new phone and one of them catches your eye, go for it! You can always go back to your iPhone if you miss it.
If many of us buy the phones we want, instead of sticking to specific platforms, it can inspire Apple to make their operating system less exclusive. I don’t know if we’ll ever see real iMessage on Android, but if Apple only supports RCS, we could have fast text chats on all phones.