Apple is toying with the idea of opening up access to the data you might have in its walled gardens, and it seems to understand that not everyone wants to stay on the iPhone. The company has recently published a new compliance report stating that it intends to meet the regulations set by the European Union (EU) Digital Market Act (DMA). The report indicates that the company wants to make the switch from the iPhone to a non-Apple phone “user-friendly.”
Apple doesn’t go into too much detail, but a note about it is in the “user data transfer tools for App Store account data” section of the report. The company indicates that while there are already third-party solutions for switching from the iPhone, it wants to build on those options with a new solution available by fall 2025:
“Third parties offer migration solutions that help users transfer data between devices with different operating systems. To build on these options, Apple is developing a solution that helps mobile operating system providers develop custom solutions for transferring data from an iPhone to a non-Apple phone. Apple intends to make this solution available by fall 2025.”
This solution would also come with a new way to transfer data that you may have stored in the browser on your device. However, it is unclear if any new solution will come to non-EU devices, as Apple has not yet delivered the alternative app store capability on iOS 17.4 that was required by the non-EU DMA.
As Apple states, there are already some ways you can switch from iPhone to Android in a few steps. You can use Google’s own “Switch to Android” app, but it doesn’t transfer all data from apps or your web browser. On the other hand, Apple has its own “Move to iPhone” app that helps you switch from Android to iPhone. Apple clearly has experience making these kinds of apps, so it will be interesting to see what it can develop for people looking to ditch their iPhones.