Running applications from one operating system on another is not impossible, but practically much difficult. For example, running Windows software on a Linux platform and Android apps on Windows is possible, but not directly. You need to emulate the environment to fool the application into thinking that the app it running on its own environment.
A few students from Columbia University have managed to do just that. They have managed to fool the iOS apps to run on an Android phone. The app thinks they are running on an iOS operating system using a third-party application layer.
The students have used Cider, an operating system compatibility architecture that can run applications built for different mobile ecosystems, i.e. Android and iOS, on the same smartphone or tablet.
Cider enhances the domestic operating system, Android, of a device with kernel-managed, per-thread personas to mimic the application binary interface of a foreign operating system, iOS, enabling it to run unmodified foreign binaries. This is accomplished using a novel combination of binary compatibility techniques including two new mechanisms: compile-time code adaptation, and diplomatic functions.
The sad part is that the applications, though they have managed to get them running perfectly, will run slower than their usual speed. Also there are plenty of limitations to it at present. Access to general hardware functions such as GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and a few others don’t work at all. However, the students are working on it and there re reports of better progress.
Take a look at a short video of the iOS app running on an Android device.
