How to Switch From iPhone to the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL

I’ve spent most of this year on Android. After being a longtime Apple user, I moved my daily driver over to a Galaxy S26 Ultra, made a few videos about that experience, and the question that kept coming up was always the same: what’s the actual process for switching? So I picked up a Google Pixel 10 Pro XL and documented every single step of moving over from an iPhone, including the parts nobody warns you about.

Here’s the good news up front. Switching from an iPhone to a Pixel used to be a genuine headache. There was third-party software involved, the transfers were buggy, and you’d inevitably lose some data or leave things behind on the old platform. Those days are over. Google has built the migration process right into the Pixel’s setup, and for the most part, it just works. But “for the most part” is doing some work in that sentence, and the whole point of this guide is to get you through the rough edges without any surprises.

Why Switching From iPhone to Pixel Is Easier Than It Used to Be

I’ve owned a lot of Android phones over the years, and historically, going back and forth between platforms meant some kind of clunky transfer app and a real risk of losing data. That’s no longer the case. The Pixel 10 Pro XL has a transfer flow built directly into its first-time setup that does the heavy lifting for you, including a wired transfer over the USB-C cable that comes in the box.

The other thing that’s changed everything is how much of your data probably already lives in Google’s ecosystem, even while you’re on an iPhone. If you’ve been running the Google Photos app, using a Gmail or Google Workspace account, or syncing a Google Calendar on your iPhone, a huge chunk of your “stuff” is already waiting for you the moment you sign in on the Pixel. You don’t have to transfer it at all.

Google has also gotten serious about what the transfer can bring across. Beyond the obvious categories, the wired transfer can pull over saved passwords, which used to be one of the most painful parts of changing platforms. Combined with passkey support and a password manager, you’re not stuck manually re-logging into dozens of accounts the way you were a few years ago.

The last piece is the move to eSIM. Modern phones, including the Pixel 10 Pro XL, are eSIM-only. There’s no physical SIM tray to pop a card out of, which sounds like a hassle but actually makes switching cleaner once you understand the process. I’ll walk you through that part later, because it’s the step people get tripped up on most.

Back Up Your iPhone Before You Do Anything Else

Before you touch the Pixel, back up your iPhone. This is your safety net, and it takes two minutes.

On your iPhone, go to Settings, tap your Apple account at the top, then go to iCloud and scroll down to iCloud Backup. Tap Back Up Now and let it finish. You’ll see the time of your most recent backup right there, so you know how current it is.

If you don’t have enough iCloud storage to complete the backup, you’ve got two options. First, you can delete old backups from devices you no longer use. Second, from that same iCloud screen you can tap See All and toggle off individual apps that are pushing large amounts of data into iCloud. It’ll show you exactly how much each app is storing, so you can free up space and make room for the backup you actually need.

You’re not going to restore this backup onto the Pixel, obviously. It’s an Android phone. But if anything goes sideways, you want a clean, current backup of your iPhone to fall back on. Don’t skip it.

Setting Up Your Pixel 10 Pro XL for the First Time

Power on the Pixel and choose your language. The very first meaningful screen asks what you’re transferring from. Choose iPhone or iPad. Then connect to your network, and make sure it’s the same Wi-Fi network your iPhone is on.

Once you’re connected, the Pixel checks your network, looks for any software updates it needs to install, and then prompts you to sign in to your Google account. If you already have a Gmail or Google Workspace account, sign in here. If you’ve never used Google before, you can create an account, and you don’t have to set up a brand-new Gmail address to do it. You can create the account using your existing email. Just tap create an account and follow the steps.

Skip the eSIM step for now

After you agree to the terms, the Pixel asks about connecting to a mobile network. I recommend skipping this for now. If you bought the phone directly from Google or another retailer, it isn’t connected to your cellular plan yet, so trying to set up the eSIM here often won’t do anything. And because there’s no physical SIM tray, you can’t just move a card over from your iPhone. We’ll handle the number transfer properly at the end, so hit skip and keep moving.

Set up your security

Next you’ll create a PIN, then set up fingerprint unlock. When you scan your fingerprint, touch the sensor and make small positional adjustments so it captures your finger from multiple angles. My tip: add the thumbs from both hands, and add your dominant index finger too. That way, if the phone is lying flat on a table, you can unlock with your index finger instead of cranking your thumb around. You can always add more fingerprints later. Then set up face unlock by following the prompts to tilt your head up and down.

Handle the rest of setup

When it asks to copy apps and data and offers to restore from another device, that list only shows previous Android devices on your Google account. If you’ve never used Android, it’ll be empty, so tap do it later. Make sure backup is turned on so your photos, videos, and important data sync to your Google account. Then you’ll be invited to turn on the Gemini assistant, set up Google Pay (you can add cards now or skip), and finally land on your home screen. At this point you essentially have stock Android. The phone may set up on-device voice recognition by having you say a few “Hey Google” phrases, and then you’re ready for the real work: moving your iPhone data over.

Migrating Your Data From iPhone to Pixel

From the home screen, swipe down twice and you’ll see a notification along the lines of finish setting up: copy data from another device. Tap it, hit start, and choose iPhone or iPad. The Pixel gets ready to receive data.

Now grab the USB-C cable that came with your Pixel and connect both phones. On the iPhone, go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Transfer to Android and tap continue. Your iPhone will ask you to trust the connected device, so tap Trust and enter your passcode. You may need to enter your passcode on the Pixel side as well.

The Pixel then scans your iPhone and matches what it can to the Android equivalents. In my case, it identified 198 apps. Keep in mind it can’t physically copy the apps over, because they’re built for a different platform. What it does is identify them and download the Android versions from the Google Play Store. You’ll see checkboxes for apps, messages, contacts, photos, videos, music, calendar, notes, recordings, device settings, and downloads, along with an estimate of how long it’ll take.

What you can skip

This is where being honest about your setup saves you a ton of time. If you already use Google services on your iPhone, you can uncheck a lot of this. My contacts are already in my Google account, so I left them out. All my photos and videos are already backed up to Google Photos, so I unchecked those too. My calendar is a Google Calendar, so simply signing in pulled it all in. If your contacts, photos, or calendar live in iCloud instead, leave those checked so they come across. For me, the things that actually mattered to transfer were my messages and call history. You can also uncheck the apps and just hand-pick the specific ones you want installed. Once you’ve made your selections, hit copy and enter your passcode to begin.

What Nobody Tells You About Transferring Your Messages

This is the part I want you to read carefully, because it’s the one thing that genuinely surprised me the first time I switched.

On the iPhone, there’s a setting for how long it keeps your message history. Mine is set to one year. The problem is that even when you delete individual text messages, the iPhone seems to hold onto them in the background for that retention window. So when you transfer, all those messages you thought you’d deleted, every one-time login code, every spam text, every temporary verification message, can come flooding over to your new Android phone. When I switched from this same iPhone to my Galaxy S26 Ultra, I ended up with a massive list of junk messages I’d already deleted, and I had to clean it all up by hand. If your retention is set to “never,” brace yourself, because that could be a huge amount of data, and it’s not just text. It’s images, GIFs, emojis, and video clips too.

The second issue is iMessage. When you message someone over their phone number, that thread connects cleanly. But conversations that happened over iMessage use a different protocol, and on Android those can come in as a separate, disconnected feed tied to an email address rather than a phone number. The result is that some threads won’t be connected to anyone, and you won’t be able to simply reply to them, because the phone wants to send to an email instead of a number. You may have to start a fresh conversation with those people.

So when you first open your Messages app on the Pixel, don’t be alarmed if it’s messier than it was on your iPhone. That’s normal. The system is doing its best to translate everything across two very different platforms.

Your call history comes across in the transfer as well, and it’s worth checking. Like messages, it reflects whatever the iPhone was holding in the background, so you may see a longer log than you expected. It’s not a problem, just something to be aware of so it doesn’t catch you off guard when you open the Phone app for the first time.

Finishing the Switch: Turn Off iMessage and FaceTime

This is the step people forget, and it’s the one that causes the dreaded “I’m not getting my texts” problem.

If you don’t turn off iMessage on your old iPhone, Apple will keep routing messages from other iPhone users to iMessage instead of delivering them to your new Pixel. On your iPhone, go to Settings, search for Messages, open it, scroll down, and toggle iMessage off. That disconnects iMessage from your number.

While you’re there, do the same for FaceTime. Sometimes turning off iMessage also disconnects FaceTime, and sometimes it doesn’t, so go into the FaceTime settings and turn it off too, just to be safe. Disconnecting both is what frees your number to work properly on your new phone.

Once you’ve done that, open Messages on the Pixel, continue through the welcome screen, and your transferred texts, including the images and video clips that came across, will be sitting there waiting for you.

Moving Your Number and Setting Up Your Carrier

Now we deal with the cellular side. I’m using Google Fi on this phone, but the process is similar across carriers. Head to the Play Store and install your carrier’s app, whether that’s Google Fi, Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile. With some carriers, installing the app is enough to move your eSIM over on its own.

If you haven’t moved your number yet, you’ve got a couple of paths. You can call your carrier and they’ll walk you through transferring service from your old iPhone to the new device, or if they have a local store, you can go in and have them do it. Because the Pixel is eSIM-only, your carrier may also need the IMEI number from the new phone to associate it with your plan, so be ready for that.

In the Google Fi app, I signed in, chose to set up using eSIM, and confirmed that I wanted to download the eSIM to this device. It told me my number was currently associated with another device and asked if I wanted to move it. I confirmed, and within a few seconds I had bars and a “connected” status.

One quirk to expect: right after activation, it may show your carrier name with “emergency calls only” for a moment. The fix is simple. Toggle airplane mode on, wait a couple of seconds, toggle it back off, and let it reconnect. Better yet, just restart the phone at this point. A clean restart right after the number transfer is good practice and clears up any lingering connection issues.

Confirming Everything Made It Over

Once the number’s transferred and the phone’s restarted, do a quick verification pass. Open Google Photos and confirm your library is there. When you first open it, it’ll ask whether to back up over mobile data when there’s no Wi-Fi. I leave that off so it’s not eating into my data, but if you have an unlimited plan, you can turn it on. Every new photo you take from here will automatically appear in your Google account.

Check that your calendar and contacts pulled in from your Google account, and skim your transferred messages. If you realize you forgot to copy something, you’re not stuck. You can go back through the same transfer process later, plug the phones back in, and just check the boxes for whatever you missed, whether that’s a couple of apps or a data category you skipped the first time.

Should You Switch From iPhone to Android?

After most of a year on Android, the platform has genuinely won me over. The Pixel 10 Pro XL is an outstanding phone, and the migration process from iPhone is now smooth enough that the switch itself shouldn’t be the thing holding you back. If you’re someone who lives in Google’s services already, the move is almost frictionless, because so much of your data is waiting for you the moment you sign in.

I’ll give you my one honest reservation: the watch experience. The thing I miss most coming from Apple is a smartwatch that integrates as tightly with Android as the Apple Watch does with iPhone. That’s the piece of the ecosystem I’m still working out, and if a deeply integrated watch is non-negotiable for you, factor that in before you switch.

But for the phone itself? Switching is no longer the ordeal it used to be. Back up your iPhone, choose iPhone during setup, transfer over the cable, clean up your messages, turn off iMessage and FaceTime, and move your number. Follow those steps in order and you’ll be up and running on your Pixel 10 Pro XL without leaving anything important behind.