Moving to an S8 from iOS

[CheltenhamMan]

Hi

I am currently an iPhone 8 owner, and have an exclusively Mac/iPad/iPhone household. I've owned iPhones for about 7 years, and have to admit I love the ecosystem, reliability, build quality, etc. However, this phone has just not excited me. It's lovely, fast, great photos, etc - it just seems like every other iPhone I've had. It's making me seriously consider moving to an S8 for a bit of a change, where I'll get an amazing display at a lower cost. I just wondered if you could help me fill some potential functionality gaps?

Key areas I need a solution for:
Calendars: my wife is also an iPhone user. We have a shared iCloud calendar and iOS alerts the other use when one of us adds something to it. I'm not wedded to iCloud and would happily move to Google, etc - I just wondered if anyone else would offer this notification system across Android and iOS environments?

Photos: I'm assuming a wholesale shift from iCloud Photo Library to Google Photos. The thought of how long this will take horrifies me, but seems straight forward enough? Are there any known challenges? I'm hoping Google Photos on Mac and iPad is a decent enough workflow compared to Photos, but any experience here would be welcome.

Airdrop: is there an equivalent where I can 'beam' photos and videos to an iPhone?

Keychain: I'm assuming I need to move from iCloud Keychain to something platform agnostic like LastPass.

Migration: will I be able to import all of my old iPhone text messages into Android? Sounds minor, but it's nice not to lose everything.

That is probably it. I'm sure there will be some culture shocks as I move, but that will at least ease them a little.

Many thanks!

 

[anon(238680)]

Welcome to Android Central. You might want to look this over:

https://forums.androidcentral.com/s...hone-s8-switchers-new-post.html?highlight=iOS

There are also other iOS to S8 threads in this forum that might be useful.

 

[tuscanybay]

Before you buy the S8, go ahead and try out Google photos and calendar yourself. Best way to see if it'll work.

 

[chanchan05]

Smart Switch on Mac can restore from iTunes backups of your iPhone, or you can do a direct cable transfer of data from the iPhone to the S8 using the built in Smart Switch in S8.

It's the beaming portion that's difficult. Phone to Mac and Mac to phone 'beaming' is easy using SideSync. Works much like Airdrop over WiFi. But S8 to iPhone can be tedious. My friends and I have done stuff like sharing pictures over Facebook messenger or Dropbox.

Known challenges are related to Facebook and iMessage.

 

[CheltenhamMan]

Thanks - I'll take a look at that. I'm open to the experiment, I just worry it'll be 'clunky' for other family members who are all on iOS. All sounds do-able, though.

 

[tuscanybay]

I am in a family of iOS devices and macs, and am an iPhone and Apple watch user myself. I've been experimenting with an S7 and now S8 as a second phone, on and off, for a year.

Long story short, it will likely stay as my second device. There was just no way to replicate the "seamless" and "working out of the box" experience, unless everyone around me also switch over to Android. Even then, Android won't have its own computer OS to fully integrate with computers like Apple does.

 

[Hobson123]

I switch between Android and Apple regularly, my iPhone 7+ is now a work device. I've never found much of an issue because everyone I socialise with use WhatsApp so imessage was never a big deal for me, I do like imessage but not a deal breaker. I refuse to change my iOS device now until the 7+ breaks as everything feels exactly the same.