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How to make your Android phone look like an iPhone without paying a dime

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Android Apple Mix

So here you are, trying to go against what the tech gods intended and make your Android phone look like an iPhone. Perhaps you’re getting home-screen-sick after recently making the switch or maybe you just like to tweak your phone and you think it’d be fun to make it look more like iOS. Whatever your reasoning may be, we aren’t here to question it. All we care about is helping you get the job done.

It’s tough to make your Android phone operate exactly like an iPhone in every way, but there are a few apps and tweaks that’ll get you close. If you’re just going for aesthetics, you might just want to get a faux-iOS launcher, but for those of you looking to get a more complete iOS experience on your Android device, we’ve also included a variety of lock screens, messaging apps, and keyboard skins that’ll transform your phone into a rather convincing fake. There are boatloads of iOS-copy apps on Google Play, and while most of them are paid, we’ve done our best to find all the good ones that are completely free. 

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Launcher

There are a handful of decent Android launchers that mimic the look and feel of iOS, but none of them are even half as good as Espier Launcher. We won’t even bother mentioning the others here. Espier is the one you want; it’s smooth, responsive, and strikingly similar to the real iOS interface. In addition to authentic-looking squarish icons, this launcher app even gives you the ability to create iOS-style folders by dragging apps onto each other. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen and you’ll be presented with a list of your recently-used applications — just like you would on an iPhone. The only shortcoming is that it doesn’t come with a lock screen, but don’t trip, there’s a solution for that. 

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Lock Screen 

Smart iPhone 5 lock screen: Although it doesn’t quite nail the look, this lock screen does offer the same functionality as the iPhone one and includes a working button for your camera app.

iPhone 5 Lockscreen: So this one isn’t a 100% faithful rendition of the iOS lock screen, but it’s close enough, and could definitely pass for a jailbroken iPhone that’s been customized. 

iPhone Lock Screen: This one looks a bit more authentic than most. The app’s designers nailed the font and dimensions incredibly close to the real thing.

Messaging/calling

GO SMS Pro iPhone theme: The developers behind this app did an impressive job of mimicking the iPhone’s green and white conversation bubbles. As far as free apps go, this is about as good as it gets for iOS-like text messaging. 

iPhone Notifications: Download this app and all of your notifications will look convincingly Apple-esque. Incoming phone calls don’t look as authentic, but they’re close enough.

InoMail: Looking for a mobile email client that feels like iMail? InoMail is just what you need. Not only does it look a lot like iPhone’s native mail app, but it comes with a number of impressive features as well. 

Keyboard

New lockscreens and icons might trick your eyes into thinking you’re on an iPhone, but in order to fool your fingers you’ll need a convincing faux-iOS keyboard as well. A.I.type Keyboard is the only one that’ll do the trick. The keyboard looks and feels like you’re using an iPhone. If you’re willing to pay a few extra bucks, it also comes with some powerful typo correction and word prediction features as well.

Put all these together, and you should have a fully-functional iDroid, or Anphone, or whatever you want to call it now. If you know of any useful Apple/Android crossover apps or tweaks that we left out, let us know in the comments below.

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Drew Prindle
Drew Prindle
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Drew Prindle is an award-winning writer, editor, and storyteller who currently serves as Senior Features Editor for Digital…
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