Apple has an easy new way to copy all your photos and videos to Google Photos

Apple quietly rolled out a tool that lets you copy all of the pictures you have stored in Apple Photos over to Google Photos.

You might find it helpful for a couple of reasons. It’s an easy way to move everything over if you’re switching to an Android phone, since you can’t upload to Apple Photos from an Android phone. Like Apple Photos, Google Photos will create automatic highlight video clips set to music, but it will also automatically create collages, animations, add filters (that often look really good) and more. Both services have their strengths, and I use both as a way to create a backup of the other.

It’s also useful if you want to switch from iCloud Storage to Google One storage. Apple charges $0.99/month for 50GB, $2.99/month for 200GB or $9.99/month for 2TB of storage. Google’s plans are similarly priced, but let you share 100GB with your family for $1.99 a month while Apple only offers family sharing on its 200GB and 2TB plans. Also, Google has a $49.99/month 10TB plan in case you have a lot of data and just want to keep everything there.

A word of warning: The transfer isn’t immediate. It said my 117GB library of over 20,000 photos and more than 800 videos will take between three and seven days to move.

I’ll show you how to copy them over now.

• First head to Apple’s privacy website (privacy.apple.com/account) on your computer.
• Log in with your Apple account.
• Choose “Request to transfer a copy of your data.”
• You’ll see a summary of the number of photos and videos stored in iCloud Photos and how much storage they currently use.
• Under “Choose where you’d like to transfer your photos” select “Google Photos.” It’s the only option right now.
• Check the boxes to transfer videos and photos.
• Tap Continue.
• Confirm you’re aware that your photos and videos won’t fully transfer if your Google One drive runs out of space by tapping “Continue” again.
• Log in with your Google Account and grant Apple access to your Google Photos library.
• Choose “Confirm Transfers.”

That’s it. You should see the pictures appear in your Google account when the transfer is complete, after which you’ll also receive an email confirmation. Just be patient: It may take several days depending on how big your library is.