Getting a new phone is exciting until you remember all those text messages you need to bring along. Maybe it’s months of conversations with family, important screenshots you sent yourself, or that one group chat that actually makes you laugh. The idea of losing any of it feels terrible.
Here’s the good news: transferring your text messages is usually straightforward, especially if you’re staying with the same type of phone. Moving from one iPhone to another or one Android to another is typically smooth sailing. Your texts, photos, and even those chaotic group threads can come with you.
The tricky part comes when you’re switching between iPhone and Android. Most guides skip over this scenario or treat it like an afterthought. They’ll walk you through the easy cases and leave you hanging when you need help the most. That’s where people run into trouble and sometimes lose messages they wanted to keep.
But switching between different phone types doesn’t have to mean starting from scratch. There are real ways to move your messages across that divide, though they require a bit more attention than the usual backup and restore. The process isn’t quite as automatic, but it’s absolutely doable if you know what to look for.
This guide will walk you through both situations. Whether you’re sticking with your current phone ecosystem or making the jump to something different, you’ll know exactly how to keep your messages safe and bring them along to your new device.
Know what kind of messages you’re trying to move
Not all text messages are created equal, and that matters more than you’d think when you’re switching phones. What looks like a simple conversation thread might actually be three different types of messages mixed together, each stored in a completely different place.
Regular SMS messages are the basic texts that work on any phone. They live with your carrier and in your phone’s memory. MMS messages are the ones with photos, videos, or group chats. Those are trickier because the media files take up more space and don’t always move cleanly between systems.
Then there’s iMessage if you’re on iPhone, which isn’t technically a text message at all. It’s more like a private messaging app that happens to look like texting. iMessages live in Apple’s iCloud, not with your carrier. Android has something similar now called RCS, which adds features like read receipts and better photo quality. These enhanced messages don’t play nice with older systems or different platforms.
Here’s where people run into trouble: when you look at your message history, you can’t easily tell which type each conversation used. A thread with your friend might have regular texts, iMessages, and MMS pictures all mixed together. Try to move that to Android, and the iMessages simply vanish because they never left Apple’s ecosystem.
Group chats cause the most headaches. They often rely on MMS or platform-specific features, so they’re usually the first thing to disappear or arrive as a jumbled mess. Photos and videos go missing for the same reason. They’re attached to MMS messages that didn’t survive the journey, or they’re stuck in a cloud backup that your new phone can’t access.
Do a quick pre-move setup to avoid missing messages
Before you start moving anything, take ten minutes to set up your old phone properly. Most people skip this part and end up wondering why half their messages didn’t make it over.
First, make sure your old phone is actually backed up. On iPhone, that means iCloud backup is turned on and has run recently. On Android, check that your Google account is backing up your messages. You can usually see the last backup date in your settings. If it’s been weeks or months, start a fresh backup now and let it finish completely.
Check that your old phone has enough free storage space. If your phone is nearly full, backups can fail partway through without warning you. You don’t need to delete your messages, just clear out some old photos or apps you don’t use anymore.
Connect to reliable Wi‑Fi and plug your phone into power. Backups take time, especially if you have years of messages, and you don’t want the process interrupted because your battery died or your connection dropped.
If you’re switching from iPhone to Android, turn off iMessage before you move. This sounds minor, but if you don’t do it, your iPhone friends might keep sending iMessages to your old number, and those messages won’t reach your Android phone. You can turn it off in your iPhone settings under Messages.
Finally, make sure you know your account passwords. You’ll need your Apple ID or Google account to restore your backup on the new phone. And confirm your phone number will stay active during the switch, especially if you’re changing carriers at the same time.
Moving messages from iPhone to iPhone
When you’re moving to a new iPhone, Apple gives you two main ways to bring your messages along. The first is Quick Start, where you hold your old phone next to your new one and let them talk directly to each other. The second is restoring from an iCloud backup, which pulls everything down from Apple’s servers.
Both methods usually bring back your full iMessage and SMS history without any extra work. You’ll see your conversations show up just like they were on your old phone. That said, photos and videos inside those chats sometimes take longer to appear. Your text history comes through first, and the attachments download in the background over the next few minutes or hours, depending on how much you have.
If your messages don’t show up right away, the first thing to check is whether you’re signed into the same Apple ID on your new phone. Then look at your iMessage and FaceTime settings to make sure they’re turned on and using the right phone number or email address.
There’s also a setting called iCloud Messages that keeps everything synced across all your devices. If that’s turned on, your new phone will pull down messages from the cloud even if they weren’t in your backup. It can take a little while, especially if you have years of history.
Group chats usually transfer fine, but they can look weird if someone in the group changed their number or email recently. The conversation might show up as a new thread, or names might look different until everyone’s contact info updates. Give it a day, and things typically settle into place.
Moving messages from Android to Android
If you’re switching from one Android phone to another, the process is usually pretty straightforward. Google’s built-in backup handles most of your text messages automatically, as long as you’ve turned it on in your old phone’s settings.
When you set up your new Android phone and sign in with the same Google account, it will ask if you want to restore your data. Say yes, and your messages should come along with everything else. This works for regular SMS texts and picture messages, though the actual restore can take a while if you have years of message history.
Here’s where it gets a little more complicated. The messaging app you use matters. If you’re using Google Messages on both phones, the transition tends to be smooth. But if your old phone came with a Samsung or other manufacturer app, and your new phone uses something different, you might need to pick Google Messages as your default texting app first, then let it sync.
RCS messages, sometimes called chat features, work a bit differently. These are the upgraded texts that show typing indicators and read receipts. They’re tied to your phone number and the messaging app, not just your Google backup. After you sign in to Google Messages on your new phone and turn on chat features, recent RCS conversations usually resync from the cloud within a few minutes.
If some picture messages or older threads are missing after the restore, check whether your old phone had message backups enabled in its settings. Also make sure your new phone has finished all its background syncing. Sometimes it looks done but is still quietly downloading attachments and older message history in the background.
Switching between iPhone and Android without losing threads
Moving from iPhone to Android, or the other way around, is where things get messy. The main problem is that iMessage and standard text messages aren’t the same thing, even though they look nearly identical on your iPhone.
When you send an iMessage, it travels through Apple’s servers, not the regular SMS network. That means those blue-bubble conversations live in Apple’s ecosystem. Once you switch to Android, your new phone can’t speak iMessage. It only understands regular SMS and MMS texts, the green-bubble kind.
Here’s what that means in practice. Your iMessage history won’t automatically appear on your Android phone because there’s no direct bridge between the two systems. Some third-party tools claim they can transfer SMS and MMS threads, and they work to varying degrees. But iMessage conversations often stay behind, locked in your old iPhone backup.
Before you make the switch, turn off iMessage on your old iPhone. Go to Settings, tap Messages, and toggle iMessage off. This step is critical. If you don’t do it, your iPhone friends will keep sending iMessages into the void, and those texts won’t reach your Android phone. Apple also offers a website where you can deregister your number if you’ve already switched.
Group chats are another pain point. An iMessage group chat won’t transfer as the same conversation on Android. It might restart as a clunky MMS group thread, or your friends might need to create a new group altogether. Photos and videos can disappear too, especially if they were shared through iMessage and not saved to your camera roll.
Set your expectations low for a seamless transfer. You’ll likely need to accept that some history just won’t make the jump, and that’s normal when crossing platforms.
What to expect for group chats, photos, videos, and voice notes
Text messages themselves are small and usually transfer quickly. Photos, videos, and voice notes are a different story. These files are much larger, so they often download gradually after you restore your backup. If you see placeholder icons or spinning wheels where pictures should be, that’s normal. Give it time, especially if you’re on Wi-Fi.
Here’s something that trips people up: some backup systems save the message text but not all the media files attached to it. Older photos sent through MMS might not come along, particularly if they were never fully downloaded to your old phone in the first place. The message will say someone sent you a picture, but the actual image might be missing.
Group chats can get messy during a transfer. Custom names you gave to groups usually don’t carry over, so you’ll see a list of phone numbers instead of something like “Book Club” or “Weekend Crew.” Once your contacts finish syncing, names should appear. Sometimes group threads split apart entirely, especially when moving between iPhone and Android. You might end up with separate conversations that used to be one thread.
Voice notes and message reactions work differently depending on which app and operating system you’re using. An audio message sent through iMessage might not play the same way on Android. Emoji reactions like hearts and thumbs-up can disappear or show up as weird text. This isn’t data loss, it’s just that different systems handle these features in incompatible ways. Knowing what’s normal helps you tell the difference between something that didn’t transfer and something that’s still loading or just looks different now.
How to keep a safe copy of important conversations
Some text messages matter more than others. Maybe it’s a conversation with someone who’s no longer around, or a thread full of addresses and confirmation numbers you might need later. Relying on a single backup means one failed transfer could erase all of it.
The simplest protection is using your phone’s built-in cloud backup. iPhones automatically save messages to iCloud if you turn it on in settings. Android phones do something similar through Google One, though the setup varies by manufacturer. These backups happen in the background and give you a safety net if something goes wrong.
For conversations you really want to preserve, consider keeping a second copy in a different format. Both iPhones and Android phones let you export individual threads or save them as files, though the exact steps depend on your model. Screenshots work in a pinch, especially for short exchanges or important details like tracking numbers and appointment times.
Photos and videos sent through text often live in your message thread but not your photo library. Save any attachments you care about directly to your photos before switching phones. That way they’re protected even if the message transfer hits a snag.
Think about why you’re saving something and pick the easiest method that fits. A screenshot of your landlord’s address takes five seconds. A years-long conversation with your best friend might deserve a proper export and cloud backup. Having messages stored in two places means you won’t panic the next time you switch phones or your device decides to act up.
