When it’s time to buy a new car, you don’t necessarily have to stick with the one you had before. You won’t lose your cloud-based photos by switching from Toyota to Subaru, nor will your friends yell at you for ruining the group chat by buying a Kia. This is not the case for smartphones: when you buy an iPhone, it is difficult to part with it. The same goes for Android: while it’s quite easy to switch within the Android ecosystem, for example between Pixel and Galaxy, switching from Android to iPhone can also be a pain. Tech companies tend to be tempted to stick with their platform and introduce friction when you try to leave them.
Of course, this is entirely business driven. Traditionally, Apple hasn’t made it easy to transition to Android because you could actually do it. It doesn’t have to be that way either. There’s nothing inherent to smartphones that makes it so difficult to exit a particular ecosystem. All it takes is intentional design: If smartphones were designed to be swapped, you could migrate from one to another, without worrying about losing pictures, messages, or any other important data or processes.
It turns out that this intentional design could be on the horizon. As 9to5Google reports, Apple and Google are currently working together to facilitate data transfer between iPhone and Android, which would make switching between the two platforms smoother. It’s not theoretical either: Google has already released some of this progress as part of the latest Android Canary, the first preview version of the company’s software. All compatible Pixel devices can currently access this latest version, although there don’t appear to be any user-facing features available to test. 9to5Google says similar features will roll out to testers in a future beta version of iOS 26. Perhaps at that point Google will roll out its features to Android beta also, which has a much larger user base than Canary.
Even though details are thin here, any cooperation between Apple and Google on this front is huge. Current migration tools exist, but they can be problematic. By working together on a native transfer solution, it could actually be seamless to move from one platform to another. Of course, Apple and Google may not be motivated by charity, as the EU has cracked down on restrictive practices by tech companies in recent years. But while both companies may see it as a way to lose customers, it’s also a way to gain them: Sure, some iPhone users may switch to Android if it’s easier to do so, but some Android users may do the opposite for the same reasons.
What do you think of it so far?
More choice is good for everyone, even if it’s not guarantee exponential growth for shareholders.
