With the mobile platform war converging to two key players, Android and iOS, i am often asked how to migrate from one platform to another.

Here is a simple guide for Android users to migrate over to iOS via the use of Google Contacts (in your GMail) and iCloud. You will, of course, need to have a valid account on both.

1. Login to GMail.  Go to your Google Contacts (below the Google logo, click for drop down menu, select Contacts).

2. Click the More menu > Export.

Export to vCard format to import to iCloud

3. Choose the group or all of your contacts you wish to export, whichever you prefer. I selected “All Contacts” to export. Choose “vCard format” and click the Export button.

4. Choose “vCard format” and click the Export button.

5. Your browser will now automatically download or ask you to save a file named contacts.vcf. Put it on your desktop or a location you remember.

6. Log in to iCloud. www.icloud.com

7. Click on Contacts

8. Click on the gear button, and select Import vCard. Select the contact.vcf  file that you exported from Google Contacts in step 5. This will import all the contacts and might take a while, depending on the size of your contact list.

9. Once done, you should be able to see contacts propagated on your iCloud contact list.

10. On your iPhone/iPad, go to Settings > iCloud (sign in with the SAME iCloud account if you have not) and make sure Contacts is listed as ON. Contacts will slowly be synchronized over a period of time. (Mine took about 15minutes)