It has been almost a month and I have been steadily working on this transition from Android to iOS. I wanted to capture a few quick thoughts here while it was still a bit fresh on my mind.
The Apple Migration tool for moving from Android failed for me. Three times. I gave up.
Thus, I didn’t get to move things like:
- Messages
- Whats App messages
- Settings/Accounts
- Contacts
- Photos
- Videos
- Music
- And so forth
I was a bit disappointed with that fact. Actually, more than a bit. I really figured Apple had this migration thing figured out to get folks to move. But, I would hit 71% complete and freeze. I don’t know, truly, if it was an Apple thing or a file it hit that freaked the program out. Whatever it was, I had to go back to the manual approach.
I use Google for most things (being Android and all), so adding that account got mail back and most contacts. I did discover I had more phone-only contacts than I realized so I had to sit and do a side by side comparison to get those copied over manually. I did hate to lose my WhatsApp conversations as one of them is very important to me. I have exported it to my email and I have the media but I miss having the actual conversation in the interface. I suppose I should try to think of them as much more transitory but right now, that conversation felt like it needed to stay a more permanent fixture on my device and I just couldn’t get it to do that.
I have moved most photos. All are backed up on Flickr so I have them, just not in my hand when I want to scroll through and find them.
I have downloaded most apps that I had before. The only one I have not found a counterpart for is Regularly, which I really like. The Apple Reminders is fine for a single event/action. Regularly would remind me of things I needed to do on a regular (get it?) basis but not like an appointment. Things like changing the filter in my water filtration system or checking my birthday calendar so I can get cards purchased and in the mail and so forth. I am on the hunt for something similar.
I do miss a few things about Android that Apple just doesn’t do.
- I like the hardware based menu button and the back button. I like getting to settings inside the app.
- I liked getting to choose my wifi network when I enabled wifi rather than go to the setting menu from the main screen
- I miss the easy “share” button in most apps. It is there in Apple but it is a different icon and I forget
- I liked the Google reminders (leave now to make your appointment, etc)
But, the 6s is a NICE phone
- It is zippy fast and I have loads more storage now
- I love making quick videos with iMovie on the phone
- I love the live photo feature
- Siri seems to work for me about as well as the “Ok Google” bit did for me
I’ll keep playing around and let you know what else pops up.