What you need to know
- Apple's recently published compliance document states it plans to introduce a "user-friendly" way for iPhone owners to switch to Android.
- The decision, which should arrive by fall 2025, was made as Apple looks to uphold its compliance with the EU's Digital Markets Act.
- The EU deemed several big tech companies as "gatekeepers" alongside any "core services" that needed to observe healthier competitive practices.
As changes continue to roll in for Apple, the company is reportedly planning to roll out a "user-friendly" way for folks to switch to Android by 2025.
According to The Verge, Apple has published a new compliance document, which details the various ways it will comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) rules. Part of this document highlights Apple's new user-friendly solutions for owners of an iPhone to switch to an Android phone.
The company states in its document that the solution will help "mobile operating system providers develop more user-friendly solutions to transfer data from an iPhone to a non-Apple phone."
This is said to be wrapped in Apple's new data portability offerings. More importantly, the company states its new solution should be available on iPhones in the fall of 2025.
Apple is hopeful that its upcoming solutions can "build on" pre-existing methods users can grab on an iPhone. As the publication notes, Google has already published a "Switch to Android" app on Apple's Appstore, which lets users transfer their photos, contacts, and more to an Android device. It's worth noting that users won't have their text messages or paid apps transferred. Similarly, you could transfer all your data over via cable as an alternative method Google provided.
It is currently unclear if Apple will offer this user-friendly solution to iPhone owners in the U.S. or only to EU residents.
Apple and several other "big tech" companies were labeled as "gatekeepers" within the European Union's DMA. The purpose of the guidelines is to encourage healthy competition among these large companies to benefit the user. With that, one of the aspects of Apple's products was whether or not its iMessage should fall within the "core service" umbrella.
This would've forced Apple to bring the RCS standard to iMessage for better interoperability with Android. However, the EU decided against the idea. The EU's ruling no longer makes it "mandatory," but Apple announced back in November that it will bring RCS to iMessage — but the green bubbles will stay.
