After using almost every model of Apple iPhone, I took the plunge. Jumped to the dark side. I migrated to Android. One of my tasks was to transfer the contacts from my Apple iPhone 6s Plus to a Samsung galaxy S7 Edge. It was a little painful for me so here’s an article on how to transfer contacts from an Apple iPhone to an Android phone.
Now you might say to yourself – why didn’t he ask the guy to do it? The guy should be able to transfer contacts.
Fair question. I didn’t buy my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge from the carrier. It was purchased at a big box store. Got a good deal on it too and saved $150 versus buying it from the carrier. The “Guy” from the big box store wasn’t terribly savvy when it came to swapping between iOS and Android. He said most customers stay within their current operating system. So Apple people buy Apple phones and Android people buy Android phones.
He’s probably right. I think people are scared of what they feel are dramatic changes to something they are using several hours each day. Turns out it isn’t that scary but I understand their view. I think an Apple iPhone and iOS are among the easiest phones to use. Apple made it real easy for their customers. Android owners have a bit more of a challenge. With that challenge comes what I consider a more rewarding experience as I have grown to like Android more than iOS. For me, the switch was worth it.
So anyway let’s get back to how to transfer contacts from an Apple iPhone to Android.
You’re probably thinking there’s gotta be an app for that. Nope (although there is one that makes it easy to move from iPhone to iPhone).
So here’s the best way to do it. Ever hear of a vCard? That stands for Virtual Business Card. It’s basically a small file that contains a person’s contact information. Both iOS and Android support this common format. The data can be exported and imported fairly easily.
First, ensure your iPhone is backed up to iCloud. Next log into iCloud using a browser on your computer. Click on Contacts.
All your contacts should now appear. Assuming you want to move all the contacts, click the gear at the lower left and select all.
Click the gear again and select Export vCards. This will download all the vCards to your computer.
Now it’s time to move the contacts to Android. Well actually, it’s going to move to Google Contacts. That’s what Android is going to use for storing your contacts. Similar to iCloud’s Contacts function but it will be used for Android.
Over to the left on the Google Contacts page are options. Click on More then Import. A popup will appear and you will select CSV or vCard file. As of today, it gets a little strange and tells you to go to the old Google Contacts page. Apparently the new page doesn’t support imports. So go ahead and do that.
Once in the old contacts page, go ahead and select Import Contacts from the left side menu. You are then prompted for the file name of the vCards that were exported from iCloud. Provide the filename and your contacts now reside in Google Contacts.
Be sure that your new Android phone is using the same Google logon ID as your computer. You should now see all of your contacts on the Android phone.