How to Convert an Android App to iOS?

Trying to convert an Android App to iOS and found that it is not as simple as an Android APK to iOS conversion?

Given the enormous spending power of all those iOS app users, converting your Android app to an iOS one for iOS users is definitely a smart decision.

Android vs. iOS Key Differences

We generally recommend that while developing a mobile app for your startup, you should consider building both Android and iOS versions simultaneously.

Aside from maximizing your customer exposure, the reason for this recommendation is that an existing Android app porting to iOS is not such a straightforward process.

The two platforms have several differences, e.g.:

1. Customizing Android is easier, while iOS isn‘t easy to customize. When you develop both an Android and iOS app simultaneously, you get a clearer picture upfront of customization requirements. Accordingly, you can design the whole process to fit both platforms.
2. Android is open-source code, while iOS is not. There are open-source components used in iOS, however. This does help a little.
3. File transfer is easier with Android than it is with iOS.
4. Kernel, UI, and other standard apps are open-source in the case of Android. However, the iOS kernel isn‘t open-source.

I have only mentioned the differences that matter when you convert an Android app to iOS. There are many other differences, and you can read “Android vs. iOS” for a comprehensive list.

The differences I have listed above will have a big influence on your planning and implementation when porting an Android app to iOS. Let‘s see how.

Key Considerations When Porting Android Apps to iOS

If you are converting Android apps to iOS apps, you need to address the following aspects:

1. Navigation on an Android device is different from iOS devices such as an iPhone, iPad, and even the iPod. Android phones have 3 buttons, i.e., ’Home‘, ’Back‘, and ’Multitasking‘. However, iPhones have only one ’Main‘ button.
2. Android and iOS ’User Interfaces’ (UIs) use different app design approaches. Android uses the ’Material design’, whereas iOS works on the ’Flat design’. This is an important factor in converting an Android app to iOS. The flat design is minimalist, and it doesn’t incorporate the 3D effects of graphics. The focus is on design functionality and simplicity. On the other hand, the material design offers greater flexibility. It incorporates grid-based layouts, animations, padding, and responsiveness. Read “Flat Design Vs Material Design, What‘s the difference?” for a detailed description of their differences.
3. You need to keep in mind the operating system version. Your app should support the latest OS versions of iOS (iOS 16 for example).
4. Libraries and frameworks are different for these two platforms. Hence, you need to study and find compatible tools, frameworks, libraries, and services for converting Android app solutions.
5. A few third-party integrations are similar for both platforms, such as payment gateways with various channels (e.g. Stripe and PayPal), social media integrations with popular platforms (such as Facebook, Instagram, etc.), data analytics modules (such as Google Analytics), etc. The rest of the code porting is implementing assets step-by-step.
6. The differences between the two platforms are significant, hence test your converted app thoroughly. Include integration testing, validation testing, “user acceptance testing” (UAT), access control testing, performance testing, and beta testing in your plan. Thoroughly test features like in-app purchases, app localization functionality, etc., on the iOS platform.
7. After completing your testing, you will need to submit your app to Apple’s App Store. You need to thoroughly review the “App Store Review Guidelines for accurate app store launch”

Let‘s now review a few approaches that allow you to convert an Android app to iOS.

Approach #1: Use the Mechdome Android to iOS Converter

If you don‘t have an experienced iOS development team in your company, then using MechDome could be a good option for you. You can complete your project to convert APK to iOS quite quickly with their Android to iOS converter.

How Does MechDome Work?

You need to do the following:

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1. Take your compiled Android APK and upload it to MechDome in a compatible file format.
2. Select whether you will create an iOS app for a simulator or a real iOS mobile device.
3. It will then convert your Android app to an iOS app very quickly. MechDome also optimizes it for your selected device.
4. You are done! You can now download your new iOS app and distribute it.

Considerations for Using MechDome

Keep the following considerations in mind when you use MechDome:

1. You can use the standard Android Java APIs, 3^rd party Android libraries, and 3^rd party Java libraries. Additionally, you can use ’Java Virtual Machine‘ (JVM)-based languages, e.g. ’Kotlin‘.
2. The standard iOS app features and hardware support are available to you. You can use the camera, sensors, Touch IDs, and GPS. You can share data with AirDrop, and you can open URLs with the Safari browser. You don‘t need to write any specialized iOS code for these.
3. MechDome compiles the Android app directly into fully native iOS code. The converted code is optimized. The company provides a free trial, you can sign-up for it on their “Create Account” webpage.

MechDome Product Features

MechDome offers the following product features:

1. Their Android App compiler takes the app that you uploaded to the Google Play Store for Android devices. The compiler converts your Android bytecode into an optimized executable. It creates an iOS bundle, where it packages all resources and metadata. You get a standard iOS app with your Android APK contents fully reproduced.
2. MechDome supports Android AOSP API level 22.
3. There is no virtualization involved here.
4. The code conversion is from binary to binary.
5. Since the converted app runs on the iOS sandbox using iOS frameworks, security isn‘t compromised. Check the MechDome product webpage for more details.
6. You can design the UI using tools like Android Studio. Alternatively, you can use other standard Android tools. Quartz Composer and ’Core Animation‘ will provide high frame rates for a better user experience when you convert the app to iOS. There will not be any compromise with the ’User Experience’ (UX).
7. MechDome ensures integration with iOS without any code change. For e.g. push notifications raise local iOS notifications.

Advantages of MechDome

MechDome offers you the following advantages:

1. You save iOS development time.
2. Your team needs to maintain one codebase only, which is for the Android app. You create features for the Android app only.
3. Upgrading to a new iOS release is easy, you just reconvert your app.
4. You reuse your entire Android app code.
5. It‘s not just a converting new app, you can convert your existing app too. More on this when I explain their pricing plan.
6. Your development team probably has only Android skills, and that’s fine! You don’t need any proprietary tools or separate training.

MechDome Product Documentation

The company provides excellent product documentation, which you can view on the MechDome Docs webpage. There is also a ’Frequently Asked Questions’ (FAQ) section.

There are instructions for installing your converted app. They guide you through installing it in iOS simulators as well as iOS devices.

MechDome informs customers that they don‘t support certain Android packages and features. For e.g., there are no same app functionality equivalents for widgets, root access, wallpapers, etc.

They plan to support a few Android APIs like RenderScript, Bluetooth, and Battery Manager in the future.

They also have a few optional features, e.g., ’AdMob‘. MechDome supports a few ad formats like banner ads, and ’Native Ads Express‘. However, they don‘t yet support ’Native Ads Advanced‘.

Similarly, they support some of the Google Firebase APIs, like ’Realtime Database‘, and authentication. On the other hand, they don‘t support a few APIs like crash reporting. Head to their site to find out more.

MechDome pricing

As I mentioned earlier, you can also convert your existing Android apps to iOS. MechDome offers packages with varying prices depending on what service you require.

For e.g. with the basic plan, you can convert 3 Android apps a month to iOS. Alternatively, 5 conversions to iOS simulators are allowed in a week.

If you buy more expensive plans, you can convert more per month. Also, you can convert more features for Android users such as maps and ’Google Places‘ when using their premium-priced plans.

There is also a higher level of technical support with premium plans, something more inexperienced development teams will appreciate. Check out their price information on the MechDome pricing webpage.

You can continue to use your existing ’Mobile Backend as a Service‘ (MBaaS) account, e.g., Google Firebase. MechDome doesn‘t charge you for runtime.

If you need guidance about MBaaS providers, read “How To Choose The Best Mobile Backend As A Service (MBaaS)?”

Approach #2: Use J2objc for Android to iOS Code Porting

This approach uses an open-source command-line tool called “J2ObjC” for Android to iOS code porting. This tool, created by Google, translates Java source code to Objective-C, which is the iOS platform language.

If you want to use this approach for your project, then you need to have a skilled iOS development team. It‘s a more complex approach than using the MechDome converter, and so requires extensive software development knowledge.

What is J2ObjC?

The tool allows you to keep Java source code within an iOS application. There is no need to edit the generated files.

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Your Android app has non-UI codes, e.g. application logic, and data model. You are likely to have developed them using Java. With this tool, you can use it for your proposed iOS app too.

J2ObjC supports most Java language and runtime features. That includes exceptions, various classes, generic types, etc. You can also have JUnit test translation.

However, the tool doesn‘t include any platform-independent UI toolkit. You still need to write iOS UI code, and you need a development team for that.

Note that unlike MechDome, which converted binary to binary, J2ObjC is unable to make this conversion. Instead, your team needs access to the Java source code from your Android app.

You need an iOS development team

UI code for iOS is usually in Objective-C, Objective-C++, or Swift. iOS developers use Apple‘s iOS ’software development kit‘ (SDK) to code iOS UIs. Hence, you need 2 iOS developers with these skills. You will also need a UI designer.

As you can see, this tool will help you with porting application logic and data model-related code, however, you need to test it thoroughly.

Hence, you need to have 1-2 testers. Additionally, you need a project manager with iOS development project experience.

In other words, it’s best to hire an expert iOS dev team to make sure that the entire process is seamless and successful. 

Requirements for using J2ObjC

Your team needs to meet the following prerequisites:

• They need JDK 1.8 or higher;
• Mac laptop;
• Mac OS X 10.11 or higher;
• Xcode 7 or higher.

I recommend your team review the following guides before they start with this project:

1. Using J2Objc with Xcode;
2. Using J2ObjC with Make;
3. Using J2ObjC with Eclipse, assuming your team will use the Eclipse IDE;
4. Required Link Settings;
5. Translating JUnit Tests;
6. Gradle Plugin for J2ObjC;
7. Maven Plugin for J2ObjC.

J2ObjC reference documentation for your team

The J2ObjC project has good reference documentation. Your iOS development team needs to study the following reference documents in-depth:

1. J2ObjC common options;
2. J2ObjC translation options;
3. J2ObjC non-standard options.

Additional useful guides for working with J2ObjC

There are additional important guides for your team, and they are as follows:

1. Translation reference;
2. Reading Generated Sources;
3. Changing Method Names;
4. Writing Native Methods;
5. Memory Management;
6. J2ObjC Memory Model;
7. Dead Code Elimination.

This is not an exhaustive list, and the project team has more documentation for reference.

J2ObjC installation and source code

Your team can download J2ObjC and install it following instructions in the Google/J2ObjC GitHub repository. The team can also view the source on the Google / J2ObjC GitHub webpage.

Cost estimate for converting an Android app to iOS using J2ObjC

With this approach, you are required to build a significant part of the app from scratch since J2ObjC doesn‘t help with UI coding.

I recommend, for a medium complexity app, that you hire a team of 1 UI designer, 2 or more iOS developers, 1-2 testers, and a PM with iOS development experience, for 2 months.

Keep in mind that your geographical location will heavily impact your labor costs. In many parts of the world, iOS development is considered a niche, hence, you will need to pay more for outside professional help.

To conclude, I have described two approaches for converting an Android app to an iOS conversion. The first one utilizes MechDome and doesn‘t require a skilled iOS development team. This provides you with a better time-to-market for your business.

However, I have highlighted the limitations of this tool.

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The second approach that will enable you to convert Android to iOS is more complex and requires a lot of custom development. Naturally, this will take longer and require a bigger and more experienced team.

Your team should read the J2ObjC guides and tips thoroughly before starting. Depending on the complexity of your app, this approach could cost you more but is more likely to yield better results.

To sum up, let’s cover a couple of key points in a straightforward, easy-to-grasp manner.

How to change an Android app to iOS?

1. Review your app requirements and take all the key tech considerations for porting your Android app to the iOS version into account.
2. Make sure to adjust the design of your app for converting it into iOS properly.
3. Rewrite the code and tailor the architecture with the help of a software architect.
4. Test thoroughly.

Or you can opt for a simplified approach:

1. Review your app requirements and take key considerations into account.
2. Pick a tool for porting your Android app to iOS based on how experienced your team is.
3. Test thoroughly.

Is it possible to convert Android app to iOS using PhoneGap?

Yes, that’s an option, but the one that we wouldn’t recommend because hybrid HTML5 apps are notorious for their poor performance, sketchy UI, and high battery consumption.

How much does it cost to convert an Android app to iOS?

It depends on the approach you take. With Mechdome, you pick the pricing plan according to your needs, while J2ObjC requires you to have a well-versed iOS dev team.

If you want to convert iOS apps to Android, you can read our article here.

Ready for Converting Android Apps to iOS?

iOS is leading the mobile OS market in terms of revenue collection from app users. You need skilled developers to successfully convert your Android app to iOS and vice-versa to help you reach a wider target audience.

DevTeam.Space can provide you with high-quality mobile app developers. All our developers are proficient in popular programming languages and can help you build or port complex apps. Moreover, all developers at DevTeamSpace are vetted for their skills and follow an AI-powered agile software development process.

If you need developers with skills to build Android apps or with the relevant expertise to convert your Android app to an iOS app or vice-versa, then why not take a moment to fill out a DevTeamSpace project specification form?

We can answer any questions you might have and provide you with high-quality developers whether you plan to develop an app for the Android or iOS platform.

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