Free migration tools fall into three families: the ones Apple and Google ship, the ones phone manufacturers ship, and file movers that people mistake for migration tools. Only the first two can rebuild a phone. The third is for photos and videos.
1. Move to iOS — Android to iPhone, one shot
Apple support page: Move to iOS, and our step-by-step walkthrough.
Apple's own app is the only sanctioned way into iOS. It runs during iPhone setup, over a temporary Wi-Fi network, and copies contacts, message history, camera photos and videos, mail accounts, calendars and bookmarks.
Where it stops: local files in app folders, most app data, and anything the iPhone cannot represent. Apps are not transferred — the iPhone downloads them from the App Store instead, so anything not sold there simply disappears. And it only runs on a new or freshly erased iPhone.
Full walkthrough: Move to iOS, step by step.
2. Samsung Smart Switch — the best free option overall
Samsung official page: Smart Switch.
If the new phone is a Galaxy, this is the strongest free route in existence. Cable, Wi-Fi or a PC/Mac program, and it copies call logs, contacts, photos, videos, music, documents and even home-screen layout. It also reads an iPhone as a source, which is more than most free tools manage.
Where it stops: it is tuned for Galaxy targets. On other Android brands the cable mode may still work, but the home-screen and settings migration does not follow you.
3. Huawei Phone Clone — fast cross-brand Android
Huawei official page: Phone Clone.
Phone Clone moves contacts, messages, call logs, photos, videos, audio, documents and installed apps between Huawei and most other Android phones over a direct Wi-Fi link. It is fast, because nothing goes through a server.
Where it stops: iOS is treated as a partial source (contacts and photos mostly). App data for third-party apps often arrives without login state.
4. Xiaomi Mi Mover — bundled, cross-brand, no ads
Xiaomi official support: Mi Mover and system transfer help.
Built into Xiaomi's setup flow. Transfers contacts, messages, photos, videos, music, documents, call logs and apps from most Android brands. No account, no subscription, no upsell.
Where it stops: iOS support is thin, and some system-level data stays in Xiaomi's own ecosystem.
5. Google backup and restore — the invisible one
Google official page: Back up or restore data on your Android device.
Every Android phone has been quietly backing up to your Google account already. On the new device, sign in during setup and contacts, calendar, Wi-Fi passwords, app list and much app data come back without you doing anything.
Where it stops: photos only if you use Google Photos, and message history only if the app supports Android's backup API. Large photo libraries restore slowly, and there is no progress bar worth trusting.
6. iCloud and Quick Start — iPhone to iPhone
Apple official page: Use Quick Start to transfer data to a new iPhone.
Quick Start copies everything device-to-device over a direct link: no iCloud storage purchase, no waiting for an upload. iCloud restore is the fallback when you are setting up away from the old phone.
Where it stops: both are iPhone-only, and both want the new phone to be new or erased.
7. Quick Share — files, not a migration
Google official page: Quick Share.
Google's Quick Share moves photos, videos and documents between Android, Windows and ChromeOS devices. It now also talks to Apple devices on recent hardware. Useful for offloading a camera roll in bulk.
Where it stops: it carries files. Contacts, SMS, call logs and app data do not move. Treat it as a supplement, not a replacement.
What users report
App-store ratings for the free routes, collected on 10 November 2026. These are user-reported figures, not our measurements — we have not run these apps ourselves, and we report the count alongside the score because a 3.8 from half a million people and a 5.0 from eleven people are not the same claim.
| App | Store | Rating | Ratings count | What the score tells you |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Move to iOS | Google Play | 3.6 | ~221,000 | The most reviewed transfer app anywhere, and the lowest score on this page — much of it from Android users who never got past the setup, plus a 2015 protest wave |
| Samsung Smart Switch | Google Play (US) | 3.8 | ~510,800 | Half a million ratings and still below 4.0: the complaints cluster around failed restores and stuck transfers |
| Xiaomi Mi Mover | Google Play | 3.6 | ~39,800 | Works well between Xiaomi phones, rated lower by cross-brand users — the same pattern we see in every bundled vendor app |
| Huawei Phone Clone | Play listing no longer resolves; official page linked | 4.4 | not stated | Highest score here, smallest evidence base; treat it as a signal, not a measurement |
Reading these numbers properly matters. A store rating mixes everyone who installed the app — including people who never completed a transfer and people who left a review because they were angry about a 2015 policy change. We use them as a negative signal: a score below 4.0 from a very large base means the failure modes are real and repeated, not isolated.
We do not use testimonials published on the vendors' own sites, for the reasons set out in how we test. Where a tool has no app-store listing and no third-party review base, its review rests on our bench run alone.
When free is not enough
The honest summary: free routes are excellent within one ecosystem and structurally limited across two. The gap is always the same set of things — SMS and call logs between platforms, app data, and WhatsApp databases.
If your list includes any of those, a paid desktop tool is cheaper than losing them. Our ranking of paid tools starts with the ones that handle cross-platform data best, and the comparison table shows the per-direction gaps.