Someone got iOS running on a Nintendo Switch, because why not?

While more than 3.5 million people have spent the last couple of weeks glued to a brand-new Nintendo Switch 2, X user PatRyk (@Patrosi73) decided to invest their time elsewhere: trying to run iOS on the original Nintendo Switch. And they did it! Sort of.

According to PatRyk, they spent two full days working on a way to run a full build of iOS inside QEMU, an open-source machine emulator and virtualizer that can simulate entirely different hardware architectures in software.

The result is a full iOS environment being emulated directly on the Switch’s Nvidia Tegra X1 processor.

The “world’s slowest”, but funnest iPhone

Before anyone gets too excited, let’s set expectations: per PatRyk’s own admission, this thing is barely functional:

Still, the fact that it even boots at all is impressive enough, especially considering that iOS is famously hard to get running on anything other than Apple’s own devices (or at best, inside Apple’s Xcode simulator on a Mac).

But… why?

I mean, why not? For Patrosi, the project seems to have been more about having fun than creating anything remotely practical.

“I’ve lost my mind (and 2 days of my life to install this),” they joked in their post. “Behold: the world’s slowest iPhone.”

Is it usable? Not even close. But as a proof of concept, and a great excuse to say you’ve booted iOS on a Nintendo console, it’s undeniably cool.

The project builds on the QEMU Apple Silicon emulation effort, which aims to make it possible to run ARM-based Apple operating systems in virtualized environments, and you can learn more about the project on its GitHub page.

Via MacMagazine