00:00 – Mishaal Rahman: Google and Apple are finally making it easier to switch between the Android and iOS ecosystems.
00:04 – C. Scott Brown: And I finally got to try some new Android XR prototypes and they were incredible.
00:11 – Mishaal Rahman: I’m Mishaal Rahman.
00:13 – C. Scott Brown: And I’m C. Scott Brown, and this is the Authority Insights Podcast where we break down the latest news and leaks surrounding the Android operating system.
00:22 – Mishaal Rahman: So the details are a bit light right now, but Google and Apple have apparently confirmed that they are working together to make transferring data between Android and iOS devices a little bit easier during setup. If true, this could be a huge deal.
00:36 – C. Scott Brown: And another huge deal is that Google could finally be bringing the heat to Meta with releasing some Android XR smart glasses. So these would be based on the Android XR operating system that we’ve already seen on other devices, but next year we’ll finally actually get glasses that will compete against the Meta Ray-Bans.
00:55 – C. Scott Brown: And finally, we’ve discovered clues that Google is working on its own version of NameDrop for Android. This feature will let you send contact info by tapping two Android phones together, just like we did way back in the day with the Bump app. If you are ancient like me, then you’ll remember that.
01:16 – Mishaal Rahman: Ah come on Scott, we’re not that old. Let us live a little longer before they start calling us uncs.
01:25 – Mishaal Rahman: Before we move on to the NameDrop story, circling back to the Android and Apple data transfer story. I wanted to kind of touch on that first because that’s the one we kind of have the least amount of details on because it was kind of a surprise announcement. So Google, they released the latest Android Canary update last week. And at the same time, they kind of told 9to5Google that there is apparently some kind of improved, enhanced data transfer solution between Android and iOS, but they didn’t share any details whatsoever. All they said was that they are collaborating together—Google and Apple—to improve data transfer. Like, we basically have that’s it. That’s all we know. They’re working on making it easier to transfer data during setup of a new Android phone or of a new iOS device.
The only thing that we do know is that these changes are live in the latest 2512, the December Android Canary release, and they will be coming to a future iOS 26 beta release. That’s all we know, but we don’t really know exactly what these changes entail. But our resident APK teardown specialist AssembleDebug took a look through the Android restore applications and he figured out some potential new details. So first of all, he discovered that some of the things that might be transferable include accessibility settings, music playlists, passwords and passkeys, wallet cards, and Wi-Fi credentials. And that in contrast, currently, Android supports transferring things like your photos, your contacts, messages, and some free applications that are available cross-platform across a cable. So it would be a big upgrade to have these new data types that are being supported with the cross-device transfer.
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