Unleashing Memories: How GOOGLE is Bridging the iOS to Android Migration Gap

Photo courtesy Flickr/Dave EdmundsAs mobile technology morphs, users often do battle over platform loyalty. On the iOS vs Android front, one of the issues users face when migrating from iOS to Android is the loss of Live Photos. That might be coming to an end, if new Google software can fill that need.

GOOGLE: The Bridge Over Troubled Tech Waters

In a world where it’s the norm for companies to focus on creating their own specialized ecosystems and to do everything they can to make your digital life exclusively in their stores, Google has been the closest to making your devices – from gadget to gadget – work together. The Data Transfer Tool – known in the Pixel universe as Pixel Migrate – is a testament to this. It’s hardly surprising that the company’s just released Live Photos-to-Motion Photos feature – which helps iOS users transfer their images to Android without any data loss – is a great testament to Google’s commitment to improving user experience across platforms.

From Live to Motion: Preserving Moments that Matter

Live Photos are easy to understand and to like. When you press the button to snap the picture, the live photo makes a little recording of what happened before you even clicked and what happened afterwards. They’re great little (sometimes colourful) moments of life and they’re easy to see why you wouldn’t want to leave them behind. Google is turning the concept of platform migration upside down. By converting Live Photos to Motion Photos as the data paused in the air, they won’t have to go through a cloud service as a middle-man.

APK Teardown Reveals GOOGLE's Plans

Thanks to the above APK teardown of Google’s Data Transfer Tool, we now understand the feature in advance of its availability. Beyond providing a glimpse into the app’s future, this deep dive into the code of an app in development speaks to Google’s ability to anticipate its users’ needs and desires. Though not yet available, Android’s ability to make data migration easier will go a long way toward improving its odds of conversion.

GOOGLE Photos: A Halfway House for Memories

For now, Google Photos has been our temporary workaround, letting us upload Live Photos and view them as Motion Photos on Android – as long as our Google One storage plan allows for it. However, Google’s more direct approach removes this dependence and enables a device-to-device transfer to make it all work.

GOOGLE's Continuous Innovation: A Win for Users

But they don’t stop there. Google is also researching how it can make it easier for you to transfer your data, as well as ways to – in essence – knit the digital landscape together a little more tightly, as it did when it created Live Photo migration. Live Photo migration is not yet fully available, but as any Google engineer will tell you: be assured that it’s coming.

Conclusion: Embracing a Seamless Transition

Shifting to Android from iOS has become even easier, as Google keeps coming up with user-oriented improvements: Live Photo transfers will be supported. Shifting between platforms will never be the same once the tension of abandoning cherished moments vanishes.

About GOOGLE

Google’s mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful Google is a global technology company focused on improving the ways people connect with information. With innovative products such as Google Search, Google Cloud, and Millions of people use Google products to find information and explore the web, watch YouTube videos, exercise on Google Fit, save files with Google Drive, and much more. Google technology connects hundreds of millions of people daily, regardless of where they live or what device they use.