Android will soon instantly log you in to your apps on new devices

New phone day for Android users should get a whole bunch easier.

If you lose your iPhone or buy an upgrade, you could reasonably expect to be up and running after an hour, presuming you backed up your prior model. Your Apple stuff all comes over, sure, but most of your third-party apps will still be signed in.

Doing the same swap with an Android device is more akin to starting three-quarters fresh. After one or two Android phones, you learn to bake in an extra hour of rapid-fire logging in to all your apps. Password managers, or just using a Google account as your authentication, are a godsend.

That might change relatively soon, as Google has announced a new Restore Credentials feature, which should do what it says in the name. Android apps can "seamlessly onboard users to their accounts on a new device," with the restore keys handled by Android's native backup and restore process. The experience, says Google, is "delightful" and seamless. You can even get the same notifications on the new device as you were receiving on the old.

The two ways a Restore Key (i.e., user login) can be passed between old and new devices: cloud backup or direct device connection.

Google

 

Google's two-part flowchart for setting up restore keys that automatically come back on a new device.

Google

 

Google notes that there is "no user interaction required" on its flowchart showing signing in on one device, backing it up to the cloud, and having that key come back when setting up the new device. There is, of course, a direct device-to-device option for manually moving over app restore keys.

Android developers will need to implement a "BackupAgent" if they want to enable a seamless phone-to-phone experience, as detailed in the docs. Even without action on their part, apps should pick up an existing Restore Key when first launched on the new phone.

Apple's iOS devices have had a seamless credential transfer for so long that it's hard to pinpoint exactly when it was first available (prove me wrong, commenters). It's very much in Android's interest to reduce the friction of setting up a new phone deeply hooked into Google rather than inviting inquiries into the Cupertino-based alternatives. It's also a quiet boon to anybody who does a full reset on their phone, whether by choice or out of frustration.

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