For many businesses especially startups, it is rational for them to develop an app for a single platform. The influential factors can be the target audience or most important lack of budget.
Converting iOS app to android app or vice versa is a way out in case the development of the first app doesn’t meet your requirements. An application for one platform can result in losing the other platform users. Still, there are tons of anomalies that you must know before wandering for skilled mobile application developers. As the owner of an application, you must know what it takes for converting an iOS app into Android application or vice versa.
Hence in this article, we have explained the whole process of converting iOS to android app or vice versa and peculiarities to which you must give attention.
Why Should You Convert Your iOS App to Android App or Vice Versa
There can be tons of reasons for this. You need to cover as many users as possible or good results that you are getting from one application. Let’s know every one of them.
New Doors for Acquiring Users
The most common reason for developing an app for another platform whether iOS or Android is to leverage the popularity of that platform. Well, Android doesn’t dominate all the markets but it is still the most popular mobile operating system in the world. Hence, it compels the entrepreneurs or app owners to build an app for the android platform if you want to scale your product globally.
As per the Statcounter, nearly three-fourths of the mobile operating system market globally is captured by Google’s Android platform. If you already have an Android application, then you must want to know the reasons for porting Android to iOS. Well, iOS is not as much spread as Android but it is still dominating some of the most wealthy markets:
- Oceania: 53%
- USA: 54%
- Canada: 53%
You can’t even think of ignoring such a huge number of clients if the product is a target in the above-mentioned demographics. Apart from this, there are many other regions where iOS is having a worthy share of 20-40%.
In most cases, the most appropriate strategy is to develop the app for both platforms to the target audience of both and earn maximum profits.
Access New Markets
If you want to expand to new markets then you must develop an app for both platforms. If you choose to port your app from iOS to Android app then you can acquire a lot of users from South America, Africa, Asia, Central, and Eastern Europe.
Also, in case you want to prepare for expanding your business in demographics such as North America, Oceania, and many other local markets like Norway, middle-east countries, then you have to convert your iOS application to Android.
Generate More Profit
This depends on the chosen monetization model. But whatever the case is, two different applications on two different platforms can give you more money than one.
There are two different ways of how you can make money through mobile applications conversion:
- iOS users spend more money on applications in comparison to the Android users
- Android apps, though, are downloaded more frequently than iOS. It can result in more earning from advertising.
You must not only focus on the market share of a platform during the expansion time but also check the target audience, their preferences, and local laws. For e.g., if you want to launch an application in the European market then the app must be compiled with the GDPR laws. For Arabic countries, the UI and UX of the app should be as per the Arabic language.
How to Convert an Android App to iOS and Vice Versa?
Now let’s know how you can port the Android app into an iOS app or vice versa. The best option is to find a highly experienced mobile app development company like Amplework. They will help you in dealing with every aspect of conversion and will also give you a proper consultation. But you must be ready to provide them with the source code, media resources, such as icons, illustrations, etc., and documentation.
You must know that there is no app converting platform in this world by which you can convert the app without any external help. It would be a highly unstable solution. It will have a lot of issues at best and not functioning at worst. You must hire an in-house developer or give a contract to a mobile application development company. At Amplework, the best mobile app development company, we are having a team of Business analysts, UI & UX designers, mobile app developers, QA experts to give you a smooth development process.
Converting Android apps to iOS or vice versa is like the construction of two different buildings. We are serious. Suppose you have built a lavish hotel in New York City and now you want a replica of that hotel in Paris. Definitely, you must have blueprints of your old building but you have to start from scratch and lay the foundation of it just like you did it with the previous building. It must also comply with local laws. So now you can understand that it will take time to develop an application for either your Android or iOS platform. It can be complicated especially for fast-growing applications.
The best examples of this are:
- Airbnb: It takes nearly one and a quarter years for the company to convert their iOS app to Android.
- Instagram: This social giant platform makes its presence on the Android platform 4 years after its launch on iOS.
Tech Challenges in iOS App Conversion:
Since we have covered how to convert an iOS app to Android or vice versa. Let’s know about the anomalies of these OS which makes this process highly complex.
Various Programming Languages:
You would have already known that there are different languages involved in the iOS and Android mobile operating systems:
- iOS: Swift or Objective-C
- Android: Java or Kotlin
Obviously, the applications can run on the other programming languages but they should be official. And again, there is no magic way by which you can translate the code written in language A to another language B. It will require a developer’s effort to rewrite the code into another language. Another point is that every language has different syntax so the time required for writing code in language A can differ from writing code in language B.
Various OS Version Adaptation
Every year both iOS and Android come with a new version release. This result is a new problem: Many users’ don’t wish to update the application to the next OS version. It means the application should work on the most popular or latest version at least.
If you are planning to convert Android to iOS, then you will face fewer problems as 91% of all the iOS users know the latest version which is iOS 12. Only 6% of them are using iOS 11 and 2% other older versions.
But if you wish to port your iOS app to Android then you must be ready to have complete research and up-to-date statistics. We have a highly complicated situation in Android. There are only 23% of Android users which are on the latest version i.e. Android Pie, while 35% are using Android Oreo, rest are on other older versions.
But you don’t need to worry much about it, the business consultant of the chosen android app development company will give you proper consultation.
Huge Variety of Screen Sizes and Resolutions
Apart from the features and functionalities, you must know that the screen sizes and resolution of Android and iOS devices are not the same. Also, there are many different devices in Android while the list is comparatively short for iOS.
But there is good news. Android allows the developer to support different densities by adjusting the application for some particular resolutions. Afterward, the application can automatically get adjusted to different screens.
Read about: Best Chromecast Apps for your Android & iOS Devices
UI & UX Challenges while converting Android App to iOS
UI & UX design changes are having anomalies like tech in porting. There are different design languages for Android and iOS – Flat and Material.
Hence while converting the Android app to iOS, the development also needs to focus upon the design guidelines provided by Apple & Google for a better user experience.
Let’s know in detail about the design differences of Android and iOS app development:
Media Assets
Porting of media assets from one platform to another is also very important as they have different sizes in iOS and Android.
Here is the grid size of iOS
For Android:
Fonts:
These operating systems come with a standard typeface: Roboto for Android and San Francisco for iOS. There are specific sizes for the system fonts as well along with weights, and letter spacings.
Icons:
The system icons are different as well. In Android, you can find bold lines, while in iOS the lines are comparatively thinner.
These were the design changes of which we need to take care of. Some other things on which you have to give your attention are:
- Navigation Drawer
- Bottom Navigation
- Tab Bars
- App Bars
- Navigations Bars
Testing.
Testing is something that is unavoidable doesn’t matter how simple the app you are creating or porting. Every developer can leave some bugs or issues which always need to be fixed. Hence, make sure the mobile app development company which you have chosen must have a QA expert who can create a testing strategy for covering UI & UX testing, code testing, etc.
Wrapping Up
After reading this article, you would have got a complete idea of various aspects involved in Android to iOS app conversion. There are code translators, converters, or any other shortcut. You must hire mobile app experts from a company like Amplework. We can help you in porting the app or developing it from scratch.
