Switching from Google Photos to iCloud will soon be a lot less painful

The service is pretty simple: Photos and videos are sent directly to iCloud, so there’s no need to download anything. You can send your entire library at once, or specify which albums you want to transfer. Google has a list of file types you can transfer on its support page , which includes common image and video formats. And .webp, for some reason. Initiating a transfer sends a copy of each file to your iCloud account, so the originals will remain in Google Photos unless you manually delete them.

Google is the latest company to offer such a tool. As part of the Data Transfer project, Meta released a tool in 2019 that lets you move your Facebook photos to other platforms. Being able to take your photos with you makes it easier to preserve memories and switch between phone ecosystems, if you want.

Are Big Tech Companies Collaborating? Unheard of! Letting you move your data from one platform to another is, you know, the right thing to do — and it’s the kind of thing regulators love to see.