Today we are pleased to announce the end to the Apple vs. Android war.
About a year ago, our Gadget Hacks team started working on a top-secret project to dual-boot both Android and iOS on the same phone—and we couldn’t be more proud to announce that we’ve finally succeeded! Your phone can now run both iOS and Android—whenever you want. Right now.
- Don’t Miss: How to Dual-Boot iOS on an Android Phone (4.0+)
Watch the video above to see how to install Android on your iPhone, or just browse to AppleHacks.com from your iPhone’s web browser to get started. No jailbreak is required, and your existing data will remained untouched.
Editor’s Note
Thanks for having some fun with us this April Fool’s Day! We hope you all enjoyed this as much as we had coming up with it. If and when something like this becomes a reality, we’ll have your step-by-step guide ready at AppleHacks.com.
How We Did It
After seeing reports of a team from Columbia University that ran both iOS and Android apps on the same device, we set out to build a safe and easy solution that anyone can use (not just researchers).
Building on the fact that both Android and iPhone CPUs use the same ARM instruction set, we managed to create a native dual-boot solution that allows you to run the full Android OS on an iPhone, as if it were just an app.
To our dismay, Apple wouldn’t let us publish it in the App Store, so we needed to come up with an easy way for it to be installed right from a web browser. Fortunately, we found a way to exploit a buffer overflow in mobile-webkit to launch the installer terminal so we could automate the entire process with just a single tap.
The process is so easy that anyone can do it—no jailbreak required.
Minimum Requirements
To get Android running on your iPhone, you must meet the following requirements. Note that this does not require jailbreak, but if you are jailbroken, the process will still work the same.
- Phone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus (iPad support coming soon)
- Running iOS 7+
- At least 1 GB of free storage available
Installation Steps
If the requirements above are met, simply follow these quick steps to get Android up and running on your iPhone:
- On your iPhone, go to AppleHacks.com.
- Tap the giant “Dual-Boot Android” button at the bottom of the page.
- Wait for the system to install.
- That’s it! Use your new Android Lollipop system!
Not all apps in the Google Play Store will work on an iPhone, but a good majority of them do. Make sure to share which apps work and which ones don’t in the comments below.
If you’re looking to install iOS on Android, check out our other guide.
Just updated your iPhone? You’ll find new emoji, enhanced security, podcast transcripts, Apple Cash virtual numbers, and other useful features. There are even new additions hidden within Safari. Find out what’s new and changed on your iPhone with the iOS 17.4 update.
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