A new app teardown points to an even easier way to switch to Android
When the Data Restore Tool showed up in the Play Store last summer, a teardown of the app revealed Google was likely working on a Switch to Android iOS app that would make it easier to transfer everything from an Apple device to an Android phone. Now, a teardown of Switch to Android itself shows that it may not only help move data between phones (or tablets) but also ease moving media from iCloud to Google Photos.
The 2021 look inside Data Restore Tool showed the app would copy data like messages and contacts — but only if they were already stored on the iPhone or iPad in question. Anything that was backed up to iCloud stayed there. Now it looks like Switch to Android will migrate images and videos from iCloud to Google Photos. The update reportedly includes this link to Google Photos Help, which gives detailed instructions on how to complete the transfer by logging into your Apple account, asking for a data transfer, then waiting for up to a week for your media to end up in Google Photos.
The teardown was done for this 9to5Google APK insight post, in which the most recent version of the app was reverse engineered (decompiled) to reveal the inner workings of its code, which can often hint at future plans for the application. It’s akin to an app autopsy, but it doesn’t always give an accurate forecast of features that will end up in use. So there’s always some unpredictability and room for error in forecasting just what an app will do once it’s on your phone.
According to 9to5, it just isn’t clear whether the updated Switch to Android app will speed up the week-long data transfer by linking to iCloud directly. The code did suggest the switch could be done with a USB-C to Lightning cable, but there wasn’t enough evidence based on examining the programming to conclude the cable solution will show up as a suggestion in the future.
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