How to send pictures from iPhone to Android

1. Change the iPhone camera file format

By default, iPhones take photos in a file format called HEIC, which doesn’t take up much storage space but can’t be read by Android phones. Sending HEIC photos to an Android phone will be like sending English books to a French speaker — it won’t make sense. So to send pictures from an iPhone to an Android phone, you’ll need to change the format your iPhone camera takes pictures in.

Changing the file format is, thankfully, very easy. Simply head to the Settings app (the one that’s a black cog on a gray background) then select Camera.

Now select Formats and you’ll see that ‘High Efficiency’ is ticked. Press Most Compatible to change it. Once you do this, photos you take will be in JPG instead of HEIC, which is one of the most widely-supported image file types around.

Ideally, you should make this change before you take the photos that you’ll want to send to your Android phone. If you don’t it’s not the end of the world, and you’ll still be able to transfer them, but your Android won’t be able to display the images. 

2. Upload to the cloud on your iPhone

You’ve got some great pictures on your iPhone, that are in a JPG format, and you want them to be on your Android device. Now what? A few options will let you send small handfuls of pictures including email, social messaging apps and social media platforms, but the best option, especially if you have loads of images, is via the cloud.

The default iOS cloud app is iCloud but this isn’t readily accessible on Android phones without some technological know-how, and I’d instead recommend one of the many other apps to do this.

I’d primarily recommend Google Drive, because this is available on iOS devices and comes preinstalled on Android devices, and the photos accompanying this guide depict it. Another Google app, Google Photos, comes on some Android devices and can also be downloaded on iPhone.

There are loads of third-party options too like OneDrive, Dropbox and Box, which you can use if you’re already subscribed to these services. All are available on both iPhone and Android devices.

To upload your photos to the cloud, firstly use the App Store to download the cloud storage app of choice. To find it press the magnifying glass search logo at the bottom-right.

Once the app is downloaded, log in with your account details (and create an account first if you don’t have one).

Uploading from your iPhone to the cloud is easy. It’ll vary slightly by app but generally you need to find a + icon to upload files, find the photos you want to upload, and select them. Bear in mind that if you’re uploading a lot of files it may take a while.

3. Download from the cloud to your Android phone

Now find the Android phone or device that you want the pictures to be on. 

On the phone or tablet, use the Play Store to download the app of the cloud storage platform you used in the second step. Then log in to the platform using the same account that you used in said step.

In the app, find the photos that you uploaded from your iPhone. The exact process to download the pictures onto your Android will vary by app, but they’re not a million miles away, and I’ll describe what to do on Google Drive because most apps will have a similar method:

In Google Drive press and hold on the first picture you want to download, until it turns blue. Now press once on each of the other photos you want to download, and when you’re done, press the three-vertical-dot hamburger menu in the top right. Finally, simply press download.

Now you’ve done it! The photos will be downloaded onto your phone, and you’ll be able to find them with the system file manager app. They’ll also be shown via your mobile’s Photos or Gallery app.