How to Test Drive Android on Your iPhone

How to Test Drive Android on Your iPhone

Swapping from iOS to Android is much easier if you’re already familiar with the Android experience, but going hands-on with an Android device before you buy is difficult — especially these days. Luckily, Samsung New Zealand recently created iTest, a tiny web app for iPhone that includes everything curious iOS users could want in an Android test drive.

iTest simulates the Galaxy phone experience right on your iPhone. You can play around with the home screen, browse the Galaxy Store, and even check out a few apps. You can even interact with mock phone calls and text messages to see how they work on Galaxy phones.

The iTest experience isn’t identical to using an actual Galaxy phone, of course. iTest can’t recreate a Galaxy phone’s camera, the settings app is truncated, and you’ll miss out on a few gesture controls. There are enough options available though to get a sense of how a Samsung Galaxy’s menu looks and operates. iTest also includes numerous tutorials to help you find your way around a Galaxy phone and Android’s settings, even for features that aren’t available in the web app.

How to use iTest on iPhone

  1. Open the iTest webpage.
  2. Scan the QR with your iPhone’s camera app.
  3. Tap the link when it appears, then follow the on-screen instructions.
  4. Once iTest is installed, tap the icon from your app screen to open it.
  5. A virtual Galaxy phone home screen will appear with apps and settings to play around with.

iTest is a good introduction to Samsung’s phones, but it’s worth pointing out that it’s not representative of the Android experience on all Android phones.

Every Android OEM offers a slightly different flavour of Android — using a Samsung phone is different than using a Pixel phone, both of which differ from OnePlus phones, for example. The apps, features, and settings available can vary depending on which company makes your Android phone, and which version of Android it supports.

That said, there are enough similarities between brands that iTest can at least give you a sense of what Android devices can do in general.

Out of curiosity, we tried installing the iTest app on a Pixel phone to see if it would let us test the Galaxy home screen on a non-Samsung device, but all it does is open a link to Samsung’s online store. Conversely, you can recreate (most) of the Pixel phone experience on non-Pixel phones. And for Android users looking to jump over to iOS, Apple’s official guide is a good place to start.

 

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