HackiOS Boots iOS 16.5 on Android Hardware
Original: Run full iOS 16.5 firmware on Android Devices
Why This Matters
Shows XNU can run outside Apple silicon with no permanent hardware changes.
The open-source HackiOS project runs Apple's XNU kernel (xnu-8796.121.2, iOS 16.5) on a Snapdragon 778G Android phone and QEMU, booting SpringBoard and apps without flashing anything.
A GitHub project called HackiOS has demonstrated running the full iOS 16.5 user space—including launchd, backboardd, SpringBoard, and apps—on non-Apple hardware by booting Apple's open-source XNU kernel (version xnu-8796.121.2). The project targets two platforms: a POCO X5 Pro 5G (Snapdragon 778G, codenamed "redwood") and QEMU on any aarch64 Linux machine. On the phone, nothing is permanently flashed. The UEFI is launched via fastboot boot, the entire system runs in RAM, and a reboot restores Android. The team built their own EFI loader, UEFI port, and closed-driver replacements, plus a Linux Wi-Fi driver running through a compatibility layer. The repository (491 stars, 95 forks) covers the kernel side; a companion repo, hackios-xnu-userland, handles the init system, injected libraries, launchd jobs, and an APFS image builder.