3 ms·
Ask HN: Will Google offer an iOS compatibility layer for running Android apps?
If/when there third party stores on iOS become available, will Google try to provide a compatibility layer for running Android apps on iOS? Maybe even provide its own store that offers everything available on the Android Store?
I think that would be beneficial to Google; they’d see much more of what iOS users do on their machines, and could keep pressure on Apple to open up their OS more for those Android features that can’t be implemented well on top of iOS.
I wouldn’t know how hard it would be to provide it, though.
I also may overlook a reason why that would trigger investigations into Google’s App Store. Maybe it wouLd become too powerful, triggering investigations into it? Do they want to open that can of worms?
- hackerbrother 3y agoIs there a real chance of third party app stores on iOS anytime soon?
- askonomm 3y agoFrom what I understood Apple will allow third-party app stores soon due to EU regulations, and is already (reportedly) in process of making that happen.
- dangus 3y agoI would say in select markets only. Apple switched to USB-C because making separate hardware SKUs to comply with the EU would be costly. Even then, they only did so after creating a new standard and accessory ecosystem to replace lightning port revenue (MagSafe). When it comes to allowing third-party app stores, Apple is only going to do that in regions where law forces them to do so.
- alphabettsy 3y agoApple already had and has multiple hardware SKUs for the iPhone to support different regions, for example the US phones have no SIM tray while other areas still did/do. They were already using USB-C on the Mac and iPad so I don’t believe the EU mandate forced anything but maybe the timeline. That said, I wouldn’t be surprise if side-loading is limited to the markets where it’s required.
- dangus 3y agoI think it will be limited by market simply because a software change has the lowest possible barrier. It's a good point about the SIM tray, although I wonder if that's less complicated than a port change.
- dangus 3y agoWhy go through all the effort to make a compatibility layer when they could just have a storefront with iOS native apps? Are there a significant amount of mobile app developers who only make Android versions of their apps and completely eschew iOS? Out of those developers, what percentage generate a significant amount of revenue to provide royalties to Google? (I.e., I imagine there are plenty of open source and hobbyist apps that don’t make their way to iOS because they don’t have the budget to buy a Mac and pay Apple developer fees, but those are the types of apps that stand to make very few royalties from a potential Google iOS App Store).
- EspadaV9 3y agoIf you could only make one app, for Android, and know that it would appear on both platforms, that could swing developers to just target Android to save development costs. Reduces SDK cost, don't need to buy Apple hardware, only one set of testing required.
- solardev 3y agoSounds like a terrible experience for iOS users. They have different UI patterns, fonts, privacy APIs, etc.
- dangus 3y agoI feel like the developers that need to do that have already been using frameworks like React Native. Plus, if you target Android, you've got nowhere to go if you want to put your app on the web, while React Native gives you a path.
- mvdtnz 3y agoSounds like a losing proposition. Why pour resources into making your competitor's platform better?
- paulddraper 3y ago---
- mixdup 3y agoHow would making it easier for you to use your existing Android apps on the new iPhone you're about to buy make anything better for Google, or the Android platform itself better? The question is will Google make it possible to run Android apps on iOS, not will Google somehow try to make iOS apps run on Android
- captn3m0 3y agoThey already have Flutter which runs on iOS. They could optimise such a future store for Flutter apps perhaps.