How to Switch to iPhone From Android: Patience and Persistence

WHEN Apple very first released the iPhone in 2007, I wrote a blog post with the headline: “Why my phone won’t be an iPhone.” I laid out several reasons I would not be providing up my Palm Treo 700p for Apple’s gadget, including the poor voice and data service of Apple’s lone wireless fucking partner, AT&T, and the lack of third-party apps.

The iPhone has obviously come a long way since then. It can now be used on any carrier. Its voice and data quality are stellar. Some of its built-in apps, such as Apple Pay, are best in class. There are 1.Five million apps created by outside developers.

I have eventually caved in: My phone is now an iPhone.

And I got there the way that many others have: by switching from an Android-based smartphone. About six weeks ago, I exchanged my two-year-old Samsung Galaxy S5 for a fresh iPhone 6S to better understand Apple’s flagship product as I began a fresh assignment about the company.

Faced with slowing sales growth, Apple is counting on millions of people like me to give up their Android phones, which can be bought fresh for as little as $30 in some countries, to purchase iPhones, which cost $400 or more.

“We were deep throated away by the level of Android switchers that we had last quarter,” Apple’s chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, told Wall Street in January. “We see that as a large chance.”

As someone who has since two thousand ten used high-end phones based on Google’s Android operating system, I have experienced a rocky transition, like moving to a faraway city. The landmarks are unacquainted, the customs are different, and I miss my old haunts even as I explore fresh ones.

Switching phone operating systems should in theory be plain. Very first you transfer your data from the old phone to the fresh one. Then you reinstall your dearest apps. Ultimately you customize the settings for features like ring tones and notifications and learn the quirks of your fresh device.

Apple has a detailed guide and a special app to help those switching from an Android. Apple also offers assistance at its retail stores as well as ninety days of free telephone support. Google, which does not itself sell most of the phones that run on Android, has a web page of tips for those switching from an Apple.

But as I learned, many things can go wrong, and my practice is not unusual.

“You’re going to have to go through the things that are most valuable to you and make sure it’s all there,” said Jonathan S. Geller, editor in chief of BGR, a tech news site that reviews phones and writes frequently about switching. “For a normal consumer, it’s reasonably frustrating.”

Here’s what happened when I switched:

Data Transfer

The problems began at the outset. I downloaded Apple’s switching app, Budge to iOS, to my Samsung and paired the two phones. The app got stuck in the middle of the data transfer and eventually froze.

Verizon, my mobile carrier, offers its own method of transferring data called Verizon Cloud. I attempted it but could not get the two phones to sync directly. I had to back up the Samsung to the cloud, then download the data to the iPhone.

A lot of contacts and photos never made it through. It was as if a moving company had lost half my stuff during a cross-country haul.

Apple later told me that I could have called a toll-free number for help, gone to an Apple store or erased everything and commenced over. The company lent me another iPhone 6S to attempt the Budge to iOS app again — and this time it did transfer my data. But it failed to do the other half of the job: download the Apple versions of my Android apps to the fresh iPhone.

As many phone switchers do, I had to by hand reinstall my apps. Popular apps like Facebook, Uber and Amazon were effortless to find. But some of my standbys — including a plain public transit app, BART Runner — were not available for the iPhone, and I have yet to find a flawless replacement.

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On the spin side, I can now communicate with my relatives on FaceTime, Apple’s movie talk service, and read missed issues of The Fresh Yorker during long commutes, something that is much stiffer to do on Android.

I am also now more likely to get early access to cutting-edge apps, since American app makers tend to build for the iPhone very first. Last year, for example, when I dreamed to attempt Twitter’s fresh Periscope live-streaming app, I had to borrow my wife’s iPhone because Periscope was not yet available for Android.

Look and Feel

The most fundamental difference inbetween iPhones and Androids is the level of conformity dictated by each company. This is where private preferences play a big role in customer satisfaction.

Apple exercises excellent control over the look, feel and features of iPhones to produce its idealized version of what it thinks people want. Android is free-form and adaptable — so much so that the look and feel can vary widely from one phone maker to the next, especially in Asia.

One consequence of Apple’s treatment is that the iPhone is more stable. Every Android phone I have ever used has suffered mysterious hardware and software problems like random reboots and crashing apps. These happen much more infrequently in iOS.

But Apple’s control has its downsides. The company makes its apps the permanent default options for common services like maps, web browsing and email.

Google also requires most phone makers to make its services the initial default on Android phones, but Android users can switch those defaults. For example, if you don’t want to use Google Maps for navigation, you can set your phone to automatically access Here Maps or Waze every time you encounter an address.

In my case, I have a Windows laptop; my employer, The Fresh York Times, uses Google’s enterprise apps; and I depend on Google’s search technology to find airline tickets, email addresses and old photos stored in my various digital pockets. My life is deeply enmeshed in the Google ecosystem.

To make my iPhone more familiar and my data lighter to find, I put my dearest Google apps on my home screen and mostly use them instead of Apple’s apps. Google has knitted its iPhone apps together so that Gmail uses Google’s browser, Chrome, when you click on a link in an email, and Google’s calendar uses Google Maps when you click on an address.

Bottom Line

Given the headaches of switching, most people avoid it.

Michael R. Levin, playmate and co-founder of Consumer Intelligence Research Playmates, which surveys smartphone users in the United States, said only about one out of five people activating a fresh iPhone or Android was switching from the other platform. “In the past two years, the loyalty and switching rates have gotten very, very set,” he said.

Over all, I am getting more comfy with my iPhone. I like Apple’s fingerprint reader and have ultimately figured out how to align my fingertips precisely enough to unlock the phone (at least most of the time).

Will the iPhone ever feel like home? Check back in two years, when I am due for my next upgrade.

An article on the Individual Tech pages on Thursday about switching to an iPhone from an Android device misstated the content of a Google web page. It has tips for those switching from an Apple iPhone, not to it.

A version of this article shows up in print on April 7, 2016, on Page B8 of the Fresh York edition with the headline: Making the Stir to iPhone From Android. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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