I am currently an IOS user, however, as the title suggests, I wish to switch to android. This is because I would prefer to use free software and not be locked into the apple ecosystem. That being said I am already locked into apple and would like to know how anyone else here has managed the switch.
I for one know I will face problems regarding group chats with friends and family on IOS, I will lose out on iCloud+ features, I will have to buy a replacement for my HomePod, I will need to replace apple home, etc.
How did anyone else here who has made such a switch replace or solve these issues?
iMessage is the biggest hurdle. I recommend that you ask your friends and family to switch to another messaging app to talk to you to avoid the green bubble frustration. (begrudgingly recommend Signal, though Sup. by the guy who made PixelFed looks interesting and can help grow the Fediverse)
It’s not going to be easy though.
What’s wrong with a green bubble? Just curious.
IPhone users have a good reason to not like green bubbles in their group chats, because then their group chat loses functionalities like emojis and the ability to send large images. Or so I’ve heard.
Apple is obviously unwilling to solve that because the lock-in benefits them.
That’s not all, as I currently use an iPhone I can tell you firsthand those are the least of your issues. When in a group chat with android users IOS users can’t add or remove people to or from the chat, iOS users don’t get any of the apple specific features like unsending, thread reply’s, reactions, even embedding things like links doesn’t work. The adding/removing people is the biggest issue however.
iMessage is absolutely an issue, and I don’t think I will overcome it if I make the switch because of how integral it is to my family. I’ve heard of software I can run on a Mac that forwards to my phone. I have an old Mac so does such software still exist and work?
Sounds like their tricks work.
I did this years ago and getting sms disentangled from imessage was a fucking nightmare. I don’t even remember how I finally managed it. Idk if it’s gotten any better, but don’t be surprised if there’s a headache. Good luck!
I’ve had this issue in the past. I had to spend hours on the phone with apple support to get them to manually remove my number from the iMessage database of known numbers. Then you also have to wait for that to sync back to everyone’s devices who has you as a contact. It was awful and still didn’t fix it 100%
Well, first I would like to adress the elephant in the room. Samsung/Google Pixel is not in it’s entirety Android. There are lots of other brands out there, each and every one of them offers different things to different people who ask for different features.
About what you’re asking for, can’t actually help with group chats (the US has a culturally attachment to iMessage, which is locked down to iOS), but for iCloud well, you can have your stuff in google drive, or on a offline drive (most of modern android have otg capabilities), or even selfhosted if that’s your kind of thing.
Seriously, give it a try and see for yourself how mature now is the OS and ofc see if you’re staying ;)
The cultural attachment you speak of is what concerns me the most. I as a person am lucky enough to have a strong enough presence that I could get away with going against the flow, but it would significantly hurt my ability to socially network.
On the note of iCloud, I’m considering buying a Mac mini and putting asahi on it (not because apple because it’s got that sweet M2) and running a nextcloud server.
I’m quite excited to give it a go, might even try some things like lineageOS or /e/os out!
I switched a month ago from iPhoneX to Galaxy A34. I used the bare minimum features on iOS so it wasn’t hard for me. Data transfer from iOS to Android was easy; during setup, I was offered to transfer data from iPhone. I connected my iPhone to Android with cable, in less than half an hour my contacts, photos, videos and some settings including wallpaper was transferred. Keep in mind that data transfer may not work if you buy a brand other than Samsung or Google or a phone with Android 11 or lower. Also you cannot transfer data from any app excluding Whatsapp. Android will attempt to find and install your apps to your new device but you will have to relogin etc.
If you use iMessage for group chats, (I sincerely hope you don’t) you will get pointed at by others, try to switch others to a messaging app like Telegram if you can. Even better if you do this before jumping ship. Also deactivate iMessage or you may not receive messages at all on Android, this is a technical issue. guide link
I personally hate iCloud so I disable it even if I am signed in to App Store. The reason is that it syncs my photos and other stuff, suddenly runs out of space and nags me for upgrade. To pull out my photos from iCloud, go to icloud.com on a PC, download everything (photos, documents, whatever) and switch iCloud off. Smart home stuff, no idea.
That’s very encouraging to hear, however unlike you I don’t use the bare minimum features. I use a lot of cloud features, and use iMessage group chats frequently. I have been able to find replacements for the vast majority of those thanks to the great people here, however as you said since I use iMessage group chats frequently, I will get pointed at. I have already tried to switch friends to telegram and they have declined, so that may be a blocker.
Do your friends use Discord?
No, they use iMessage which is a large issue. I effectively need to keep iMessage working.
There are self-hosted apps like AirMessage which can relay iMessage to your Android from a Mac. (or macOS running in a virtual machine if you have the time for that) There is also Beeper which doesn’t require a Mac but it will put you in a waiting list if you sign up now.
Not really helpful here, but I have only ever used Mac’s and have never used an iPhone and I have 0 problems. If you have a Mac or an iPad, you should be able to access everything that’s Apple that use you use on your phone. I can easily put items in my Google calendar from my Mac or my Pixel. I can access files on my Google drive on all devices just the same. The Apple weather widget is less accurate than the Google One which is less accurate than just about every 3rd party app. I use Firefox which syncs between all devices. Pretty much everyone I know has an iPhone and not a single person complains about my green texts. I read the other comments about group chats, and I’m in those too and no one complains. Either my friends don’t use any of these features, or it’s gotten better. I felt that Android phones just work more easily than iOS (which is weird because I feel that Mac’s work more easily than Windows, and this is kind of the same argument). You are going to run into a lot of issues, but maybe they really won’t be all that bad in the long run. You probably won’t get your texts to port over, but you can start new threads and in a couple of months you might not notice. Hopefully it goes well!
Welcome to the world of Sd cards and downloading what ya want. There’s google drive. Idk what apple home is cause i despise Macintosh, but there’s Chromecast and that stupid Alexa thing.
