Even though people are talking more about Apple’s iOS9 launch, the company at the same event also unveiled its first ever Android app – a content migration tool that would help Android users to seamlessly move to iOS.
As its name implies, Move to iOS is designed simply to migrate data from an Android device to a new iPhone or iPad. Users can transfer their contacts, calendars, photos, videos, browser bookmarks, email accounts, and even their SMS history.
During the transfer process, iOS establishes a private Wi-Fi network and connects with the Android device. Entering a security code authorizes copying data and configuring apps like Mail.
The app also tries to identify which Android apps have counterparts on the App Store, and can download free ones automatically and place any paid apps on an iTunes Wish List.
Move to iOS is a free download, and runs on any device with Android 4.0 or later.
Although Google has a number of apps on iOS, Apple has largely avoided anything to do with Android as a way of keeping people in its hardware ecosystem. Until now its only Android presence has been Beats Music, which Apple acquired in 2014 and will soon be shut down after the company finishes migrating people over to Apple Music.
1-star reviews
Android fans are trashing Apple’s first-ever Android app — probably because it’s all about switching to iOS. Not surprisingly, Android fans are taking the entire concept of the app as something of an insult.
“I call on my fellow Android comrades to ensure this app gets drowned into oblivion with a 1-star rating never to be seen again on our cherished platform,” writes reviewer Segun Omojokun. And that’s basically what’s happening. The app primarily has 5-star and 1-star reviews right now, with the vast majority being the latter. There are currently a little over 800 reviews with a 5 star rating and over 3,300 reviews with a 1-star rating. The app’s overall rating currently sits at a 1.8.
The reviews are pretty entertaining to go through, with Android fans using the occasion to mock Apple for perceived failures. “This is a time travel app. Ever wish you could go back in time?” asks reviewer Jet C. “Well now you can! Experience all the features you have had for years all over again, but this time in slow, drawn out increments.”
“I installed this and then realized that I could just use NFC to pair the two handsets and transfer all my stuff across,” reviewer Michael Tyler writes. “Cant I? Oh wait… no I cant because despite my Android phones having NFC for the last four years it’s somehow only a ‘feature’ on the newest iOS.”
“If Apple was a country it would be North Korea,” writes reviewer Akshat Singh. “Looks like Apple wants to attack our freedom and control everything we do on our phone and also charge us a bomb for it in this process.”
There were also people who legitimately had a bad experience with the app. “My phone got really warm installing this,” Sean Zatorsky writes in his review. “Immediately uninstalled due to fear of a fire. #applefail.” That’s not as bad as Jeffrey Fina, who writes that he, “Tried to use and got sick. I attempted to use this app and instead of data migration, I got Ebola.” Embarrassing for Apple, if true.
Some people actually left serious criticism, albeit with harsh ratings to go along with it: “I’m rating 2 stars because this app probably works well, but it was done so poorly,” writes a reviewer named Connor Kirkby. “I get that this is an Android to iPhone app, but you could have at least used a Material Design theme.” A fair criticism! Move to iOS may well be the last Android app someone ever uses, but it should still look like an Android app.
