I switched from an iPhone to Google’s Pixel phone and survived - buckleydowanceares

Google ready-made a splash to begin with this month when the ship's company announced IT would be shipping a dongle with every Pixel earphone it sold that helps iPhone users transmigrate to its Android flagship.

As a lifelong iPhone substance abuser, I decided to put Google to the test and find taboo how well that process truly works. And after spending a weekend working through it, I came to a nuanced and untidy conclusion. Broadly speechmaking, migrating whole shebang fine, only the nitty-gritty inside information of the process are painful to plenty with.

I expectable the transition to be farther from frictionless. Afterward all, I use iCloud Photo Library to sync my photos, correspond with my friends using iMessage, cut through my exercise with an Orchard apple tree Watch and use a Mac. Migrating wasn't going to be easy, but I sought-after to give IT a shot anyway and see whether the Pixel XL lived up to Google's hype.

On Friday morning, I pulled my SIM posting out of my iPhone and cragfast it into a new Pel XL that Google provided for reappraisal. I fired the phone prepared, and IT walked me through the process of trying to move my contacts, calendars, email and messages. Google also offers to migrate users' music and photos, but can't transfer snaps only saved in iCloud Photo Library, or iTunes euphony that's DRM-protected operating theatre stored in Apple's cloud, so I skipped that.

Google includes a dongle for migrating data from an iPhone to a Pixel.

The whole process took about a half hour, and I was left with a phone that promised to be personalized for Pine Tree State, just like my old unrivalled. My text message conversations were all in that location, and my contacts carried over. My iCloud-synced calendars were copied into Google Calendar, besides.

I was then faced with the close hurdle: getting totally the apps I treasured onto the raw phone. I installed 37 new apps, in addition to those Google provided. In the process, I had to find alternatives for several of the apps I use regular, which meant shift my to-do list, podcast app, and Twitter client.

IT wasn't a super-costly process, but I also didn't try to put back the apps and ironware I'd atomic number 4 missing if I successful a full migration. (Replacing an Apple Picke for fitness tracking would live difficult, for example.)

Hitting some snags

After all that, I finally got to settle into the Pixel XL. The passage to Humanoid didn't feel equally foreign as I had feared. Many of the apps I was already in use to happening iOS ingest analogs on Android that tone similar. The fingermark sensing element on the back of the phone didn't feel nearly every bit weird to role as I hoped-for, especially afterward I got used to gripping the phone.

As I got more comfy with the phone, however, Sir Thomas More annoyances started showing up. Photo attachments to text messages, which Google promised to import, didn't show up eligible in the conversation, like they did happening my iPhone. Instead, each visualise was replaced with a helpful message that I could find them in my ring's Photos app.

But the photos in that brochure aren't organized in any way, with some images that I standard months ago showing up right aboard photos that arrived in the past hebdomad as though they all came in at the same time.

Jason Cross

Google Assistant is cool, but doesn't seem that far ahead of Siri.

Using the new Google Assistant was impressive at times, but didn't feel like a game-changer. In many cases, it was better at sympathy my queries than Siri, patc Apple's practical supporter handled other situations better. Whole, I'd give Google the march in voice credit truth and experience, but it doesn't feel suchlike an insurmountable lead.

Migration once again introduced close to issues. My relationship information is all loaded functioning in my iOS contacts, so Siri knows who my parents are. But when I asked the Google Assistant how experienced my Dad was, it didn't know who I was talking about. When I gave information technology his name, I acknowledged it would associate that with the contact card of the homophonic name already along my phone. It didn't.

Moreover, making reservations victimisation the Assistant—one of the things that Google publicised heavily—was finnicky and noncompliant. The port clearly shows potential, but the execution isn't quite a there yet. Siri and Google both integrate with OpenTable, and I'm unconvinced that I toilet find a reserve using either of them faster than I could just use the OpenTable app.

Shift own't easy

Don't get Maine damage: the Pixel XL is a great phone. Google's done fit with this i, and I look forward to eyesight what comes of information technology in the upcoming. But making the move over to it from iOS when I'm so invested in Orchard apple tree's platform already felt alike death from a fewer cardinal different, tiny cuts, without a shiny reward for my troubles.

Populate who already rely on services that have a stronger cross-platform component part alike Fitbit for seaworthiness and Spotify for euphony wish take in an easier fourth dimension making the move. IT'll be easier still if their photos are already in Google Photos and they already use Google Calendar.

If I was sounding for a original phone without any luggage of migrating, I'd comprise taking a good, long looking at the Picture element line. Simply I have a shiny, spic-and-span iPhone 7 that I enjoy using already, and it has the benefit of working with all the iOS-only apps and services that I love. Now, if you'll apologize Maine, I'm going to switch iMessage back on.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/410728/i-switched-to-googles-pixel-phone-and-survived.html

Posted by: buckleydowanceares.blogspot.com

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