iPhone Users Can Now Transfer Live Photos to a Google Pixel 9 and Older Models

Google is now making it easy for iPhone users to keep their Live Photos when they switch to a Pixel device. That’s thanks to Google’s upgraded Android setup tool, which now supports transferring Live Photos from an iPhone during the setup experience of a Pixel device.

For those unfamiliar, Live Photos is an iPhone feature that records what happens 1.5 seconds before and after you take a picture. There’s a similar feature on Android called Motion Photos. However, iPhone users interested in switching to Pixel had no straightforward way to transfer their Live Photos unless they were ready to upload them to a cloud service that supports them, such as Google Photos or OneDrive.

As Android Police reported yesterday, Google’s upgraded Android setup tool that made its debut on the Pixel 9 series earlier this year can now import Live Photos from an iPhone. The new setup tool also makes it possible to transfer data from another phone at any point, not just during the out-of-box experience.

On Threads, Paul Dunlop, Product Lead for Android Onboarding and Android Settings at Google confirmed in August that migrating Live Photos from an iPhone via this upgraded setup tool was enabled for Pixel 9 customers. “This is also rolling out to older Pixel devices over the next few weeks,” Dunlop said at the time.

While this is good news for Pixel owners, Google is also making it possible to transfer iPhone Live Photos to other Android phones. This will work through Android Switch, Google’s official transfer app on iOS and Android. This app was updated two weeks ago with a new name (it was previously known as “Data Transfer Tool”) and other new features.

“Right now, Live Photos is available through Android Switch on all Pixels. We’ll be expanding access to the feature over the next few weeks to more devices,” Dunlop said on Threads last week.