Apple joins Google and Facebook in Data Transfer Project

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What you need to know

  • Apple has joined Google, Facebook, and Twitter in the Data Transfer Project.
  • The project aims to make it easy for people to transfer data between services.
  • There are now 18 contributors to the Data Transfer Project.

Apple has confirmed it's now part of the Data Transfer Project, joining Google, Facebook, and Twitter. The initiative aims to make transferring your data between different services as seamless as possible.

Created in 2018, the Data Transfer Project's mission is simple:

The Data Transfer Project was launched in 2018 to create an open-source, service-to-service data portability platform so that all individuals across the web could easily move their data between online service providers whenever they want.The contributors to the Data Transfer Project believe portability and interoperability are central to innovation. Making it easier for individuals to choose among services facilitates competition, empowers individuals to try new services and enables them to choose the offering that best suits their needs.

The Data Transfer Project has a number of pertinent examples on its website explaining why the initiative is so important. For example, its tools could make it super easy to port your music playlists from one service to the other, or transfer your Facebook photos to a photo printing service—all without much effort from the user.

Right now, the Data Transfer Project has 18 contributors. Along with today's news about Apple joining the project, the Data Transfer Project announced some updates, including integration for Deezer, Mastodon, and Solid.

Brandon Russell