How to do Family Sharing on Android to Apple?

Family sharing allows family members to easily share content like photos, calendars, locations, and more across devices. On iOS, Apple’s Family Sharing system provides seamless integration for sharing purchases, subscriptions, and media between family members using Apple devices.

Android’s family sharing features are more limited compared to Apple’s offering. While you can share some content across Android devices using Google apps, there is no unified family sharing system. To link Android and iOS devices for family sharing requires setting up sharing across apps on both platforms.

The goal of this guide is to explain how to set up family sharing between Android and Apple devices to allow family members to share photos, calendars, locations, contacts, notes and more. With some effort, Android and iOS users can take advantage of key family sharing features together.

Set Up Family Sharing on the Apple Devices

To enable Family Sharing on your iPhone or iPad, go to Settings and tap on your name at the top. Then choose “Family Sharing” and tap “Set Up Your Family.” You’ll be prompted to confirm as the family organizer and review Apple’s Family Sharing terms and conditions.

The setup process will walk you through adding family members, specifying parental controls if needed, and sharing access to purchased content and subscriptions like apps, books, music, movies, TV shows, and iCloud storage. According to Apple’s support documentation, Family Sharing makes it easy to share the following with family members:

App Store, Apple Books, and iTunes purchases

Apple Music family subscription
iCloud storage plan
Location sharing via Find My

Shared photo album
Family calendar
Apple Cash family payments (US only)

Once Family Sharing has been set up, all content will be shareable with family members according to the organizer’s instructions. Members can also easily contribute their own photos, calendars, and locations to the shared family resources if desired.

Enable Content Sharing on the Android Devices

To enable content sharing on Android devices, users first need to turn on the content sharing feature in the main device settings. This allows the phone to discover and connect with other nearby devices for sharing. Here are the steps:

Open the Settings app on your Android phone.

Tap on “Connected devices.”
Turn on “Nearby Share” by sliding the toggle.

With Nearby Share enabled, you can now start sharing various types of content between Android devices. This includes:

Photos and videos from your camera gallery
Music and audio files
Documents and PDFs

Web links
Calendar events
Contacts

To share an item, simply open it and tap the Share button. You will then see nearby Android devices show up that you can send the content to. Accept the transfer on the other phone to receive the shared content.

Link Apple and Android Accounts

You can link your Android and Apple IDs to enable convenient cross-platform sharing between devices. There are two main ways to link your accounts:

Accept a Family Sharing invite from an iOS device. If you receive a Family Sharing invitation from someone in your family with an iPhone or iPad, you can accept it on your Android device to link accounts. This will connect you to the Family Sharing group.
Manually link accounts in settings. Go to your Apple ID account settings online at appleid.apple.com and add your Android device using your Google account email address. You can also add your Apple ID to compatible Android devices in your Google account settings.

Linking your Apple and Google accounts allows you to easily share content across iOS and Android devices. Some key benefits include:

Shared photos and videos – View and save photos/videos taken on either platform.

Shared calendars – View and add events to cross-platform calendars.
Shared locations – Locate family members across iOS and Android devices.
Shared contacts – Access a synced contact list on all linked devices.

Shared notes – View notes from any linked device.

Overall, linking your accounts makes it simple and seamless to share content between family members using Apple and Android devices.

Share Photos Between Android and iOS

The easiest way to share photos between Android and iOS devices is to use a cross-platform photo sharing service like Google Photos (https://www.google.com/photos/about/). Google Photos allows you to backup, organize, edit, and share photos and videos from both Android and iOS devices.

To get started, download the Google Photos app on your Android and iOS devices. On Android, open the app and tap your profile icon > Settings > Back up & sync. Turn on Back up & sync so your photos automatically back up to Google Photos.

On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app, tap Settings > Back up & sync, and turn on Back up & sync. You can also enable iCloud Photo Sharing in your device Settings if you want to continue backing up to iCloud as well.

Once Google Photos is set up on both devices, any photos you take will automatically back up and sync across platforms. To share photos, open the Google Photos app and select the photos you want to share. Tap the Share button (icon with arrow pointing up out of a box), choose who to share with, and send.

The recipient will receive a link to view the shared photos through Google Photos on any device or web browser. From there they can view, save, or add their own photos and videos to the shared album. This provides a seamless photo sharing experience between Android and iOS users.

Share Calendar Entries

One easy way to share calendar entries between Android and iOS is to use Google Calendar. You can sync your Google Calendar across devices so any events added on Android will automatically show up in the Google Calendar app on iOS, and vice versa.

To set this up, first make sure you have the Google Calendar app installed on both your Android and iOS devices. Then on each device, open the Google Calendar app and make sure you are logged into the same Google account. Any calendars you have added under this account will sync across devices.

On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Calendar app and under “Settings”, tap on your account name. Make sure that sync is turned on for your different calendars. Do the same thing in the Google Calendar app on your iPhone or iPad.

Now when you add or edit calendar events on one device, the changes will sync and appear on the other device after a short delay. This provides a convenient way to share calendar entries between Android and iOS using Google Calendar.

Alternatively, you can share your iCloud Calendar from your iPhone/iPad with Android devices. To do this, open the Calendar app on your iOS device and tap the “iCloud Calendar” you want to share. Turn on Public Calendar, then share the URL to invite other people to view that calendar. On Android, open this shared URL in the Google Calendar app and it will display the iOS calendar events.

Share Locations

One of the most useful things you can do is share locations between Android and iOS devices. This allows family members to see where everyone is in real-time using GPS. Some of the top apps that enable cross-platform location sharing include Life360, Google Maps, and Find My Kids.

Life360 is likely the best dedicated option for families. To set it up:

Download and install the Life360 app on both the Android and iOS devices.
Open the app and create an account.
From the menu, tap add family member and send an invite.

Accept the invite on the other device to link accounts.
Enable location sharing in the app settings.

Once configured, all family members will show up on each other’s maps so you can see real-time locations. Life360 also includes handy features like driving reports, emergency assistance, and more. This makes it a top choice for families who want comprehensive cross-platform location sharing between Android and iOS devices.

Share Contacts

One of the easiest ways to share contacts between Android and iOS is to sync them through a cross-platform service like Google Contacts or Facebook. Here’s how to set it up:

On your Android device:

Open the Contacts app.

Go into the settings menu.
Tap Accounts.
Select the account you want to sync contacts with (Google or Facebook).

Make sure contact syncing is enabled.

On your iPhone:

Go to Settings > Contacts.

Tap “Accounts” and select Google or Facebook.
Enable Contacts under that account.

Once you’ve gone through these steps on both devices, your contacts will automatically sync across platforms. When you add, edit or delete a contact on one device, the changes will apply to the other as well. This keeps your Android and iOS contact lists seamlessly in sync.

You can also use third-party apps like CopyTrans Contacts to transfer contacts. But using a linked account like Google is the easiest method since it provides continuous syncing.

Share Notes

One easy way to share information between Android and iOS devices is through a cross-platform note-taking app like Google Keep or Evernote. Here are the steps to set up note syncing between devices:

Install the Google Keep app on both your Android and iOS devices. You can find it in the Play Store on Android and the App Store on iOS.

Make sure you are logged into the same Google account on both devices.
Any notes you create or edit on one device will automatically sync to the other. You will see the updated notes next time you open the Keep app.
You can also collaborate on notes with others by tapping the Share icon and entering their email address or phone number. They will be able to view and edit the shared note.

With Google Keep, your notes remain available on the web at keep.google.com as well. So you can access them from any device.

Using a dedicated note-taking tool like Keep ensures your notes stay organized and accessible across Android, iOS, and the web. The automatic sync makes it easy to share text, lists, photos, audio clips, and more between devices.

Conclusion

Sharing content seamlessly between Android and Apple devices for your family can take some initial setup, but makes daily life much easier once configured. This guide walked through the key steps to enable Family Sharing on iOS devices, turn on content sharing in Android, and link accounts to share photos, calendars, locations, contacts and notes.

Keep in mind that some sharing features may work better than others depending on the specific Android phone models and versions you’re using. Shared notes and contacts tend to have the fewest issues, while location sharing can be hit-or-miss. Make sure to test different features and adjust sync settings to troubleshoot any inconsistencies.

A few additional tips: make sure everyone is running the latest OS version on their devices, use cloud storage services like Google Photos to have a backup of shared images, and check in periodically that all devices are still linked correctly for seamless Family Sharing between your mix of Android and Apple.