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

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.