iOS look on Android
April 9, 2025
I’ve always been a fan of iPhones and Apple products in general, as well as user interface of iOS and macOS. I’ve also owned several iPhones and MacBooks in my life, however, currently I’m using an Android phone. The Android operating system provides better customizability and has better app support for web development, but I do find myself missing the UI of iOS.
Luckily, there are many launchers that you can set up on your phone to get a more customizable home screen. Unfortunately, it does come with compatibility issues. On my POCO phone, for example, I was unable to use gesture navigation with any third party launcher, being forced back to navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen. From what I’ve read, this issue is prominent on all Xiaomi phones with HyperOS as well.
Launcher OS
Out of all the iOS style launchers, my favorite one is Launcher OS. I tried about three different ones, including Launcher OS Themes & Widgets and Launcher OS 2025, but the original one seems to have the least amount of issues. It has 50+ million downloads on Play Store. Ofcourse, it’s not perfect, as the free version is plagued by ads when you set up the launcher and each time you need to adjust some settings, but I haven’t seen any ads when simply using the home screen or any other app.
Navigation Gestures by GeniusTools Labs
Once you’ve set up Launcher OS, you’ll probably notice that the navigation buttons have now been forced on. In order to fix this, we’ll first need an app that will handle the gestures as the original functionality will not work when we adjust some hidden settings.
You’ll see many apps that handle gestures on the Play Store, but out of all of them, I found Navigation Gestures to be the best one. It’s free and highly customizable.
Once you’ve installed it and granted all the permissions, you’ll want to adjust some settings. In order to mirror the functionality of original gesture navigation, you’ll need to set up bottom and left strips. Then, for the bottom strip, set all three buttons to go to Home on swipe, and on swipe and hold, set it to open Recent apps. For the left strip, set all three buttons to go Back on swipe.
You’ll notice that there will now be three colorful buttons showing up when you swipe from the bottom, and there will also be an indicator bar on the left side of your screen. You can hide them while still keeping the swipe functionality by opening Appearance tab and setting Button size and Indicator transparent to 0%.
Hidden Settings by Yunus Ceyhan
Now that you’ve set up your launcher and navigation gestures you’ll want to disable the default navigation buttons. In order to do this, download Hidden Settings and search for Navigation. Select Navigation Mode, and in the next screen, choose Gesture navigation. This is a dirty fix as it will disable the navigation buttons and enable gestures, but you’ll notice that the original gesture bar will not be working, and that’s where our custom solution with Navigation Gestures comes in handy.
