Developer and Tendigi CTO Nick Lee, who previously got an Apple Watch to run Windows 95, has showed off a new project he’s been working on, which allows Android to work with an iPhone using a specialized iPhone case.
“The main inspiration was the intense feelings Android and iOS users have about each other,” Lee told TNW. “I said to myself— ‘What if you could have it all on one device?’”
As seen in the video below, Lee created a 3D printed iPhone case and outfitted it with a built-in Lemaker HiKey board, a battery pack, and other hardware so it could support a version of Android.
The case plugs into an iPhone’s Lightning port, turning the iPhone into a display and emulating touch events on Android. While the iPhone is able to display the Android operating system, the Android OS itself is powered by the hardware in the case.
Lee outlines the case’s creation process in a detailed post on Medium, explaining that he figured out how to clone the Android Open Source Project to make a customized version of Android Marshmallow, which is what is displayed on the iPhone.
