Matisyahu's Blog

I’ve been watching a few iPhone to Samsung switch videos for a while and the one thing I notice is that a lot of time is spent on the hardware and software but little spent on talking about migrating from one ecosystem to another ecosystem. When I mean ecosystem I am referring to moving from the ‘default’ on the iPhone being iCloud to that of Google (maybe even Microsoft) on Android or if they aren’t using iCloud exclusively what else are they using in concert with it – iCloud plus Google Workspace or Office 365 with custom domain? If they used both services what did they utilise iCloud for – bookmarks, passwords etc. or only for ‘find my’ then use Microsoft or Google for the rest?

The reason why I bring that up is because if you’re heavily integrated with iCloud – everything from passwords through email, calendering, contacts, custom domain (through iCloud+) then what you need to do when moving to an Android phone is going to be completely different than someone who is 99% using Microsoft or Google but use iCloud solely for device tracking, buying apps on the Mac etc. which is where I am. For me, I am 99% in the Google Workspace with my iCloud being used for ‘Find my’ and buying stuff on the App Store for my Mac.

The other part of the equation that is also left out is this, are you on a Mac, Windows or Linux desktop/laptop? If you’re a Windows device then you maybe more open to using Samsung’s own home grown bespoke applications which only have support for synchronising to Windows whereas if you’re on iCloud then there is support in Windows for CardDAV and CalDAV support along side IMAP for email but on Android there is no CardDAV and CalDAV out of the box support.

For me, the process is relatively simple because what ever existed on iCloud exists in Google Workspace but for others it’s a bit tricker. Looping back to the start of this post, the reason for posting this is because reviewers and switchers seem to overlook these issues because in some cases a switch isn’t merely moving from one platform to another but also rethinking who is going to be their email provider, who do are they going to synchronise their bookmarks and passwords to – should they use a paid service like 1Password? Maybe sign up for Office 365 for custom domain hosting and use Microsoft Edge?