The holy grail of smartphone hackers has been to run Android on an iPhone. Tendigi’s Nick Lee, who put Windows 95 on an Apple Watch, has come up with a way. It’s not for the faint of heart, and you’ll need some definite skills to pull it off.
BGR:
The hack requires both hardware and software customizations, so you won’t be able to replicate it at home without the proper skill set. Lee basically found a way to stream Android to the iPhone’s display. After customizing an Android build from the Nexus 5X to get it going, he moved the installation to custom hardware.
To be honest, Android is never actually installed on the iPhone, instead Lee created a custom case that runs a flavor of Google mobile OS, and the iPhone displays what’s going on in the case via a method that looks to be kind of AirPlay in reverse.
The 3D printed case Lee created and uses offers USB, microUSB, HDMI and microSD ports, and it connects to the iPhone via a Lightning plug. Lee places the iPhone in the case, hooks up the cable, and runs a special iOS app on the iPhone. The user can then see Android Marshmallow on the iPhone’s screen.
The video below shows how he does it, and there is a bit of lag, but it’s a cool proof of concept to show a way for Android to run on the iPhone, The case isn’t available for sale, but if you have the skills, Lee’s blog post, tells you everything you need to pull it off.
