I’d usually buy a new mobile device through a carrier or third-party store because it’s cheaper. They offer instant activation and monthly payments that make a $1,000 payment easier to swallow.
The trade-off is that the phone selections are not enticing, and they have bloatware that makes switching messy.
Still, it’s not enough to make me patronize the Google Store. The replacement and support headaches can be just as frustrating, especially since there are no official outlets in my region.
The new Head Start feature for Pixel 10 is the first real attempt made to smooth the brutal handoff from iOS to Android. It means I can now preload passwords and essentials before my phone arrives from overseas.
It’s safe to say the Google Store now has something I actually want badly enough to overlook its baggage.
Head Start makes file transfers easy
Prep data before your new phone even touches your hands
I’ve been saving up to leave the midrange category and buy a proper flagship. Although I’ve not quite decided what phone to get, the Pixel 10 is a prime option.
I haven’t made any moves to check it out at any store, but I already dread the data transfer part.
I think it’s no coincidence that I learned about the Head Start tool around the same time I had these thoughts. I was curious because Google was tackling a stressful part of switching properly.
Previewing it gave me interesting choices. I could tie migration to my Pixel 10 order or start prepping right away without the device.
Given that I already split my life between an iPhone and an Android phone, this struck me as a big deal. Moving over my digital assets would be easy, regardless of the ecosystem.
I came across the setup page while poking around the official website. After signing in with my Gmail account, it offered me the aforementioned paths.
I wasn’t ready to buy the device, so I went with the second option to see how far the process would go.
The initial interaction was on my Realme 12+, where a screen walked me through photo and video sync.
It pulled up my Google account and showed that my photos were already being backed up to Photos. The page also explained that when the device arrived, those photos would be instantly available when I connect my account.
iPhone users can also try Google’s tool
That walled garden has to come down somehow
Most of the difficulty in data transfer between Android and iOS comes from Apple’s walled-garden design. The company has spent years making sure its data flows inward far more easily than outward.
Normally, you’ll juggle Lightning cables and side-by-side apps like Google’s Switch to Android. You’ll still lose your iMessage history or Safari passwords along the way.
iCloud Keychain is another example. Apple encrypts stored passwords using device-level keys tied to your ID.
It makes sense for security reasons, but if I want my saved logins to follow me to Android, I can’t simply export them. The only supported direction is pulling the data into iCloud from Safari or compatible apps.
Head Start addresses this problem directly and quicker, too. The procedure on my iPhone was slightly different from my Android test run.
I started with photo and video synchronization, where I enabled automatic backup.
Then I spotted a step-by-step guide to exporting Safari and iCloud Keychain passwords on iOS 18.2 or later. I’ll need to save them as a file, unzip them, and import them into Google Password Manager.
I wasn’t excited to see the tool circle back to the dreaded physical cable method. I’d hoped the entire point was to modernize migration and escape the clunky cable-dependent process.
However, on the bright side, the difference is now timing and less friction. Before, everything had to be moved in a single stressful sitting while the new phone was charging next to the old one.
Plus, you can transfer just about anything from your old Pixel or iPhone. Contacts, calendars, photos and videos, apps, messages, notes, and music are supported on both platforms.
However, Apple makes you route pictures through Google Photos instead of iCloud. So, you must install the app.
You can also move your message history on Android, as well as iMessage threads and WhatsApp media on iPhone.
Apps are a gray area. On Android, they typically reinstall directly from Play Store backups. On iPhone, the tool may try to match your apps with Android versions where possible.
Head Start is Google Store’s exclusive flex
For once, I don’t mind gatekeeping
Head Start is a Google Store exclusive feature. But I’m not even pressed to complain about it.
Normally, I’d roll my eyes at exclusivity. It usually means you’re getting a half-baked perk that you’ll unlock if you jump through hoops. But I actually get it.
If Google hands this tool to carriers or third-party retailers, users lose a clean and more secure pipeline between accounts and devices.
I’m satisfied with my data moving directly between iCloud and Google’s servers without any intermediary to mishandle or delay the process.
But if it were carrier-wide, I’d almost expect my current carrier or any local network to repackage it and possibly tether it to SIM activation. Plus, there’s the risk of having my passwords and backups tied to systems I don’t fully trust.
I also love the possibility of multi-device balance. If my banking app password changes on iPhone, I don’t want to wait until I switch phones to fix it.
With Head Start staged in the cloud, the Pixel can inherit those updates instantly when I sign in. At least, I’m hoping it works like that.
In particular, it’s a win for people like me in regions where Google has little to no presence. The feature may be locked to the Google Store, but that doesn’t mean your phone has to be.
It looks like you can access it through the web even if your Pixel phone comes from somewhere else.
Stay ahead with Head Start
My expectation for Head Start is that it shouldn’t stop here. The Pixel 10 is proof that Google can rethink migration and make it more effective.
Still, I’d like to see it expanded beyond a store-only experiment. There are so many possibilities for its growth.
Protocol-level innovation is among them. Instead of exporting passwords as files, Google could develop an encrypted handshake API with iOS.
A one-time token bridges iCloud Keychain into Google Password Manager without ever exposing raw files. Apple would resist it, of course. But it’s the standard that could create a gap between ecosystems without compromising anything valuable.
It’d be nice if they open-sourced parts of the tool and published APIs for other OEMs to build their own versions. That way, there are more secure file transfer methods available.
