Yandex company blog

From Feature Phone to Smartphone with Yandex.Disk

Yandex has rolled out a utility app to help new buyers of iOS or Android smartphones to seamlessly transfer their data from their old Symbian, Java or WindowsMobile phone to the new device.

The mobile data transfer utility hinges on Yandex's free cloud storage service Yandex.Disk, which was launched as a beta in April 2012 and became available to a wider audience in September the same year. Yandex.Disk is a godsend to anyone who appreciates an opportunity to store their files online and access them from any internet-enabled device. The service users can upload files in any format and use up to 20 GB of free storage space for personal documents, photos, music, or videos. Yandex.Disk also automatically saves email attachments in the users’ Yandex.Mail accounts to the additional storage space allocated specifically for this purpose.

The owners of iOS or Android smartphones access their files stored on Yandex.Disk, easily and instantly, via the Yandex.Disk app for iOS and Android, which complements the web-based service. In addition to using an opportunity to upload, download or manage their files on Yandex.Disk from their smartphones, they can also share files via mobile phone at a minimal cost – instead of sending the whole file the app forwards just a link to the file uploaded to the service. Syncing files from phone to computer is also easy – files added to the Yandex.Disk app on the user’s phone can be instantly viewed on a PC or laptop. The app also allows taking photos with the phone’s camera and saving them directly to Yandex.Disk. 

The new Yandex.Disk utility downloaded to any smartphone operating Symbian, Java or WindowsMobile sends the user's contacts to their new Android or iOS phone. Users of Symbian or WindowsMobile systems, in addition to contacts, can transfer their bookmarks, text messages and call history to their new Android device. 

This utility is an add-on to the Yandex.Disk service, which offers users a safe and easy way to sync their data across multiple devices. Downloaded to a Symbian, Java or WindowsMobile phone, it gathers the user’s data and sends it over to the web-based Yandex.Disk. The only thing the user needs to do next is download the Yandex.Disk app to their new Android phone for their contacts, bookmarks, text messages and call history to appear on the new phone. To transfer personal contacts from their old phone to an iOS phone, the user only needs to enable contact sync via CardDAV in settings. 

The new Yandex.Disk utility facilitates users' transition from a feature phone to the latest generation smartphone devices. It offers the most convenient and user-friendly way to transfer data between different mobile platforms and gives users continuity of access to their information regardless of which device they use.

Currently, the Yandex.Disk utility is released with the Russian language user interface for customers in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. 

The Yandex.Disk app is available in English and can be downloaded from Yandex, the App Store or Google Play

To app developers, Yandex offers the Yandex.Disk API, which is also available in English.