In the modern world in which we live, moving between mobile platforms is common practice, but you may be limited by the ecosystem you use and the services you rely on. That’s why Google’s recent move to allow users to export Gmail and Calendar makes it even easier to make that switch.
Gmail and Calendar export
As announced on the official Google blog, users can now export their Calendar data in the iCalendar format and Gmail archive in the MBOX format for importing to another service.
Having access to your data and being able to take it with you is important, especially if that data contains precious memories like old love letters, your first job offer, or that 100-message thread discussing the merits of various cat videos. Starting today we’re rolling out the ability to export a copy of your Gmail and Google Calendar data, making it easy to back up your data or move to another service.
These formats which Google exports the various pieces of data into are readable by iOS and OS X meaning you can easily switch services and take your data with you, making that switch from Android to iOS pretty easy.
As you could previously, Google also lets you export an archive file containing data from Google+, YouTube, Drive and other Google data.
When you export your mail from Gmail, each message’s labels are preserved in a special X-Gmail-Labels header, in CSV format. While no mail client recognizes this header now, most mail clients allow for extensions to be written that could make use of this data.
The ability to download your Gmail messages will be rolled out over the next month, while Calendar data is available for everyone now.
So if you wanted to make the move, now seems as good time as any. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.