If I was swapping that often, I think I’d set up a single device with my bare minimum, every time stuff, and just keep it bare bones. I actually kinda have that, since I have an old phone that I use as a back door cam, I just don’t use it like that because I don’t switch often enough to matter.

But there’s always a few things that an individual is going to want in every phone, app wise. So it should be simple enough, if you’re going to be using Google services in the first place, to do it. Like, the camera phone has nova launcher, the app for the camera (can’t remember the name, but it’s that one from the Guardian project), my preferred music player, and a note app (I use markor). While I use more than just those on every device, that’s an example of what I’m talking about. If that’s going to be on every device, I could use that backup every time.

Also, it’s nice to see android authority doing a useful article ;)

And i thought switching ROMs every week was a crazy thing to do

Switching phones every two weeks without restoring backups? I changed phone three months ago and I didn’t finish to transfer my stuff lol

Biggest thing I make sure to never forget is the export/import of any authenticator apps. That is a huge mess to fix.

@ijeff One of my goals is to abstractize my data from the devices I own. This is how I plan to have a no-frill switch in the future. That means not being tied to an account or to a specific app. Just like you can open your photo in any photo viewer software, I want to have all my other stuff capable to be opened on any device, using any software. So far I managed to keep my notes in .md files and use KeePass to hold my passwords in. Google and others have the advantage of making their services ubiquitous, but what happens if you cannot access them for some reason? What if the new device you use is unable to access them, and it’s urgent for you to do so? Imo it feels way better to both have (almost) universal access to my data and own it at the same time.

I’d love to eventually get a flip phone because I find the new phones way too big for my pocket. But the incredible price of these things makes me pretty sure they’ll stop being made because nobody buys them, and I’ll never get a chance to find one at a reasonable price.

If someone else who is not a professional reviewer can relate to that, he seriously should change his consumer habits…

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