G Cloud Backup: A Simple Way to Move Your Data to a New Android Phone

What the app did

The idea was a personal cloud for the things on your phone. You install the app on the old phone, back up while on Wi-Fi, then install it first on the new phone and tap restore.

Features at the time

• Backup of SMS, contacts, call logs, documents, photos, videos and music.
• Secure transfer over SSL and 256-bit AES storage on Amazon S3.
• Daily automatic backups when Wi-Fi is available, the phone is plugged in or the battery is healthy.
• Restore to the same phone or a different one.
• Backup of external SD cards.
• Every version of each file kept.
• Options to change the schedule, turn off automatic backup or back up over 3G.

Storage and cost

The free allowance was 1 GB. That is plenty for messages and call logs, but not for music and photos. A 10 GB plan cost something like a dollar a month, according to the author, and bigger libraries might still need other storage.

Does Google already do this?

Partly. Google syncs contacts and calendars, and photo backup is available through Google’s services. The author noted that many users never use these features. The app adds backup of call logs, text messages and some system settings, which the author did not personally need.

Who it suited

The author recommended it for people who want backup to simply work without learning how the phone is set up. You still need a Google account to reach the Play Store and install it.