Google and Apple are launching a new tool to transfer photos from Google Photos to iCloud. This feature will be part of the data transfer initiative (Data Transfer Initiative) and will add the ability to export to iCloud to the existing Google Takeout options.
Details of the innovation
The tool transfers photos from Google Photos to iCloud automatically and will be available within the next week. You won’t need to download, upload, or do anything manually except run the process through the web interface.
Apple’s support page says that, depending on the amount of data, the transfer can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days.
Moving photos from Google to iCloud will not delete them from Google Photos. You will need to manually remove them from Google Photos if you wish to do so completely.
In addition, the service will not work for children’s accounts, accounts with Apple ID records managed by administrators (those set up through IT departments), or iCloud accounts with Advanced Data Protection enabled.
This tool is a continuation of a similar service launched in 2021 that allowed photos to be transferred from iCloud to Google Photos.
What else is known about the Data Transfer Initiative
The DTI initiative was launched in 2023 as a joint project of Apple, Google, and Meta. Officially, its purpose is to advance the ideas of the open source Data Transfer Project (DTP), which started five years earlier.
Off the record, it’s hardly a coincidence that the DTI launched months before the European Commission defined “controlling companies” under the Digital Markets Act, and the DTI’s objectives coincide with the requirements of this regulatory body.
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