Apple Teams Up With Facebook, Google And Microsoft For The Data Transfer Project To Improve Data Portability
Apple has officially joined the Data Transfer Project (DTP) that was launched and introduced by the search giant, Google in July 2018. The Cupertino giant has now joined Google’s list of partners that includes Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and other contributors.
According to the project’s website, DTP is “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 website further states that DTP “is a collaboration of organizations committed to building a common framework with open-source code that can connect any two online service providers, enabling a seamless, direct, user initiated portability of data between the two platforms.”
The new interface uses platforms’ existing APIs and authorization methods on the various platforms to access data and then transfers it into a common format compatible with all services.
Apple’s entry to the DTP will lead to easy switching of customer data from Android to iOS where customer can transfer their data from Google’s services, including Play, over to Apple’s servers.
Until now, 18 contributors from partners and the open-source community have inserted in more than 42,000 lines of code and more than 1,500 files have been modified. The project has added framework features such as Cloud logging and monitoring to enable production use of the DTP at companies developing new features.
It has also added updated integrations for new APIs from Google Photos and Smugmug to enable users to move their photos between these services, as well as new integrations for Deezer, Mastodon, and Solid.
The project is still in “very active development,” but you can follow its progress on GitHub. If you are interested in participating in the development, you can follow instructions for the same on the DTP website.
