Can I install Android on my non-Android device?

Question

Many people want to try/use Android without buying a new Android phone. How can I install Android on my current phone or device running Nokia Symbian, Maemo, or MeeGo; Microsoft Windows Mobile or Windows Phone 7; Apple iOS (iPhone); RIM's BlackBerry OS; Palm's WebOS; Samsung's Bada; or other phone / operating system?

Answer 1

The Short Answer

Theoretically, all devices that meet Android's minimum requirements can run Android, it's just a matter of customizing Android for the device.

The Long Answer

While Android is open source and can be modified to suit many devices, firmware and hardware drivers are most often not made readily available -- especially not the source code. Android won't run on a device without drivers for that specific device, so this means that you can't simply compile the code for Android and run it on your phone.

Android is a very different operating system than other phone platforms; Android and Windows Phone 7, for example, are just as different as Ubuntu and Windows 7 for the PC. This means that even if you have WP7 drivers for your device, those drivers won't work on Android. You'll have to modify those drivers to be compatible with Android, and you may need to reverse-engineer a lot of code. This is very difficult and time-consuming, and sometimes even a team of people have little success with it. Even getting a new version of Android to run on an Android phone can be hard.

The upside is that many phone manufacturers are now putting out versions of the same device with different operating systems. One example is the WP7 HTC HD2, which is very similar to the Android HTC Desire Z. The Desire Z ROM only requires slight modification to run on the HD2.

Android ROMs/projects for non-Android Phones

Various developers have gone through the effort of creating an Android ROM that can be installed on other devices, or have started to do so. The following statuses will be used to describe each project/ROM:

• Pre-alpha: Concept stage. You cannot use Android at all yet.
• Alpha: Android is technically usable, but many major features are missing.
• Beta: Most major Android features are usable, but it's fairly buggy.
• Complete: This is almost as good as "real" Android!
• Unknown: It's, well ... unknown.

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Apple iOS Devices

• iPhone 2G
  • Android 2.2: iPhodroid. Alpha.
  • Android 2.3: See the iDroid project. Alpha.
• iPhone 3G
  • Android 2.2: iPhodroid. Alpha.
  • Android 2.3: See the iDroid project. Alpha.
• iPod Touch 1G
  • Android 2.3: See the iDroid project. Alpha.

LG Devices (Proprietary OS)

• LG Arena / KM900
  • See the Arenoid project. Pre-alpha.

Windows Mobile 6 Devices

HTC

• Gene / P340x
  • Android 1.5: See this XDA thread (Wing Linux). Alpha.
• Leo / HD2
  • Android 2.2: See XDA's guide to running Android on the HD2. Complete.
  • Android 2.3: See various 2.3 ROMs available on XDA. Unknown.
• Tilt / Kaiser / TyTN II / MDA Vario III
  • Android 2.1: See this XDA thread (CM5). Beta.
  • Android 2.2: See this XDA thread. Beta.
• Touch CDMA / Vogue 100 / P3050
  • Android 2.2: See XDA's Touch CDMA - Android Development subforum. Beta (most ROMs).
  • Android 2.3: Same subforum. Alpha.
• Touch Cruise / Polaris / P3650
  • Android 2.1: See this XDA thread (CM5). Beta.
  • Android 2.2: Apparently "Fresh Froyo" may work, which is a Touch CMDA ROM. See XDA's Touch CDMA - Android Development subforum. Unknown.
• Touch Diamond / MDA Compact IV / P3051 / P370x
  • Android 2.2: See this XDA thread. Beta.
• Touch Diamond 2 / Pure / Topaz / MDA Compact V / T5388
  • Android 1.6-2.2: See this XDA thread. Beta.
• Touch Dual / Nike / MDA Touch Plus / P5500
  • Android 2.2: See this XDA thread. Alpha.
• Touch GSM / Elf / P345x
  • Android 1.5: See this XDA thread (Wing Linux). Alpha.
• Touch HD / Blackstone
  • Android 2.2: See this XDA thread. Alpha.
• Touch Pro / Fuze / Raphael
  • Android 2.2: See this XDA thread. Beta.
• Touch Pro 2 / Tilt 2 / Rhodium
  • Android 2.2: See this XDA thread. Beta.
  • Android 2.3: See this XDA thread. Alpha.

Samsung

• Omnia II / i8000 (See also: MoDaCo thread)
  • Android 2.1: Omnia2Droid. Beta.
  • Android 2.2: Omnia2Droid. Beta.

You may be able to boot Android from an SD card on your WinMo device as well, leaving WinMo intact on your device. This guide shows how to do so, and it works on many WinMo devices.

Windows Phone 7 Devices

• Currently none

Symbian Devices (Nokia and Sony Ericsson)

There aren't currently any known successful attempts to port Android to devices originally designed for Symbian.

• Nokia N95
  • Android Port for Symbian phones blog (Gizmodo mention of that project). Unknown

Feel free to add to this answer as new ROMs come out for more devices!