iOS on Pixel 6

RESEARCH PAUSED AFTER MILESTONE 01 / OCT 2026

A different OS.
The same Pixel.

An experimental iOS 16 port for the Google Pixel 6. On one physical phone, touch can unlock the screen, open apps, and navigate from Settings to About. It is extremely slow.

Explore the milestone View source

Curiosity-driven research · No practical use case identified · Not a public installer

A physical Google Pixel 6 showing the experimental iOS Home Screen with a black diagnostic text bar
FIG. 01 Tester-supplied photo; the black bar is a live debug overlay.
XNUrunning on GS101
iOS 16.7.16root volume mounted
SpringBoardHome Screen observed
FTM5physical touch input

01 / VERIFIED ON HARDWARE

What works today.

Milestone 1 is a measured result from one Pixel 6, with explicit boundaries around what has and has not been tested.

01Verified

Boot and userland

A temporary boot image hands off through a GS101 shim to patched XNU. The iOS HFSX root mounts and launchd, backboardd, and SpringBoard run.

02Observed

Lock screen to About

The tester swiped into Home, tapped to open apps, and navigated through Settings to General → About. Photos show each stage.

03Partial

Touch and speed

FTM5 events reach XNU HID. Basic gestures and taps work, but the device is extremely slow. Longer sessions and broader interaction remain unverified.

04Open

Networking and polish

Safari opens, but google.com stayed blank. Debug text can cover the interface, and automatic iOS startup is not implemented.

02 / SYSTEM PATH

From bootloader to Home.

The current path is temporary and developer-operated. The iOS root is read from the phone while runtime writes are held in volatile memory.

  1. 01Pixel 6 bootloaderfastboot boot temporary image
  2. 02GS101 shimMemory and device-tree handoff
  3. 03Patched XNUUFS root + RAM copy-on-write
  4. 04iOS userlandlaunchd → SpringBoard
  5. 05Physical interfaceFTM5 touch → HID → Home / Settings

03 / EVIDENCE & LIMITS

A real device. A research result.

These are resized, metadata-stripped copies of tester-supplied physical-device photographs, not simulations or framebuffer reconstructions.

The Pixel 6 displaying an iOS-style lock screen with the time and wallpaper
01 / LOCK SCREEN The physical panel during the boot experiment.
M1

Progress without overclaiming.

Home, Settings and About appeared on one device in one development configuration. The About screen identifies Model Name “Pixel 6” and Model Number oriole; its editable Name says “Pixel 6a”, which is not a compatibility claim.

The phone is extremely slow. These observations do not establish app compatibility, Internet access or daily-use reliability. Android may enter Recovery after a normal reboot because the experimental iOS root occupies userdata.

Read the milestone record
Home Screen with a black diagnostic overlay
01 / Home Screen · live debug bar
Settings open on the physical Pixel 6
02 / Settings opened by touch
Settings About screen showing Model Name Pixel 6 and Model Number oriole
03 / Settings → General → About
Safari with google.com in the address bar and a blank content area
04 / Safari opens; page remains blank
Settings partly obscured by a black diagnostic bar
05 / Diagnostic text over Settings
Blurred Home Screen transition on the slow experimental build
06 / Slow, blurred transition frame
Pixel 6 display filled with XNU and touch diagnostic text
07 / Full-screen diagnostic output

04 / CLOSING NOTE

The experiment rests here.

This was a curiosity-driven experiment in AI-assisted systems engineering. Reaching a touch-driven iOS interface on a Pixel 6 was the first milestone. We do not currently have a practical use case for turning this into a usable phone OS, so active research is paused.

The public repository preserves the code, methods, photographs and known limits. A future continuation would require a reproducible build, much better performance, clean display output, networking, recovery, and independent device testing.