Can an iOS device be backed up to Google Drive?

Solution 1:

I wouldn't call Google Drive an iCloud competitor. Google Drive (like Dropbox) is your hard drive on the Internet. Meaning you can see, and manipulate your files.

iCloud is a bit different, for starter, it's an Apple-centric service, you can backup your iOS devices, store your music (but only access it with iTunes), store your (iCloud) mail, calendar, reminders and contacts, and let apps store settings on it.

But you can't access it directly like you would do with Dropbox or Google Drive.

So I would say that you will not be able to use Google Drive to back up your iOS devices as easily as you would do with iCloud.

Solution 2:

Google have announced that there will be an iOS client for Google Drive, however it has not launched with one.

Reports that it will be quite soon from the Verge

Solution 3:

Backing up to google drive will definitely not be possible on a non jail broken iPhone. Apps can only read and write data in their own little sandbox, they cant access data from other apps (there are ways to explicitly share data between apps but this requires both apps active participation)

So the client will only allow reading files already the drive and uploading files that you specifically choose.

It's preferable to use iCloud anyway as the integration is very deep. You can restore your iPhone directly from iCloud and it will backup automatically.