Surely you have ever needed test an iOS app and you have not been able to on your Android device, or perhaps that app is not found natively on Google Play, so you would have to buy an Apple product to run it, something you do not want. Well, here we propose some solutions to be able to test or run your favorite iOS apps without having to have a Cupertino brand device. You just have to use some interesting applications that we propose.
Of course, do not expect DOSBox emulators or compatibility layers such as WINE or similar, in this case there is nothing similar, but you can use your favorite web browser to execute them from there thanks to these tools that we present here.
appetize.io
One of the The best platforms to run iOS apps on Android is Appetize.io. You can use it from your favorite web browser, without complications. Since it is an emulator that is offered as an online service, running from the cloud. In this way, you will be able to run any iOS app or simulate an iOS device as if it were a web application. This will allow you to access an endless number of applications for this platform that you couldn't use before from your Android smartphone or tablet.
Appetize.io has a free version that will allow you to use the service for 100 minutes. A completely free demo that could help you if you want to try something specific. However, you can always opt for the premium service, which will allow you to have access whenever you want. You can buy it in several types of subscriptions, but the cheapest and best for those who are not professional developers or companies is $40 per month. As you can see, it's a bit expensive, but the truth is that it works like a charm and you can also use it from your PC or Mac, since it can be opened in any web browser.
Cycada (formerly known as Cider)
The next option you have is cycad emulator, one of the best known iOS emulators for Android. However, development has been discontinued, with no updates since 2014. Therefore, you should not use it for production or professional use. If you can download an earlier version of the last ones that were released, you can try more on this project (formerly called Cider) and that they developed in the Department of Computer Science at Columbia University. And that it is totally free.
Because it does not have a recent version, it may not work with the most modern apps or current versions of them. In addition, it could have some inconvenience or problem that compromise reliability. For this reason, it is not the first option that we recommend.
On the other hand, as you will have seen, It is not available on Google Play, and currently you will not be able to find any official link to download the APK. Therefore, you must trust the APKs that exist on third-party websites, something risky for security reasons, since they could be infected with some malware. Therefore, if you do, you must do so at your own risk.
iEMU
Lastly, we also have iEMU, an emulator similar to Cycada. It is a project developed by CMW and works by booting iOS on top of QEMU. In this way, the platform can be emulated and the iOS operating system virtualized to run the apps you need.
But, like the previous project, iEMU is also an outdated version, since not updated since december 2013. Therefore, it might not work with the latest versions, and it might be unreliable. On the other hand, there is the same security risk as with Cycada, since you have to find an APK to download from third-party sources where it is still published.
Therefore, be very careful not to download an APK that may be malware infested or that can make you download deceptive apps that are not what they seem, compromising the security of your Android operating system. In short, I do not advise you to download this app, and if you do, it should be at your own risk or on an old or test Android device so that nothing happens in case of infection.
Conclusion
Finally, by way of conclusion, add that if you need to run native apps for iOS on your Android, it is best to use one of these projects that we present here. I personally I would recommend Appetize.io, since it is quite a good and stable platform in the form of a cloud service. The other emulators featured here, such as iEMU or Cycada/Cider, are somewhat outdated, and while they still work with certain versions of iOS apps, you should avoid them whenever possible.
If you prefer to use a PC with Windows for this, you can count on software like iPadian, an iOS simulator that will allow you to simulate this Apple operating system from your desktop to see how it works, familiarize yourself with its interface, or run applications available for this system and that are specially designed for iPadian. For example, you will find a catalog with Facebook, Spotify, WhatsApp, Instagram, among others. Of course, you will not be able to install any iOS app that you can imagine, only those provided by the developer of iPadian. In addition, it is a premium software, paid, and it costs $25 if you want to use it.
If what you use is the operating system GNU / Linux, you also have a very interesting ally with QEMU. This emulator for different architectures and platforms can now also emulate, for example, the iPhone 11 with iOS to be able to test apps. With this emulator you will not only be able to emulate the iPhone, but also many other systems, such as the Raspberry Pi, Android mobile devices, and many other architectures that you can imagine, such as PPC, SPARC, x86,...