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How to make your Android phone look like an iPhone 5

If you're curious what your Android phone would look like disguised as an iPhone 5, there's a launcher program that will do just that.

Ed Rhee
Ed Rhee, a freelance writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is an IT veteran turned stay-at-home-dad of two girls. He focuses on Android devices and applications while maintaining a review blog at techdadreview.com.
Ed Rhee
Fake iPhone 5
Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET

Apps that make Android phones look like iPhones aren't new by any means, but they remain an interesting novelty that seems to appeal to a lot of Android users. If you've been curious about how iOS 6 would look on your Android phone, a new app called Fake iPhone 5 has just been uploaded to Google Play.

Created by a user at XDA Developers, Fake iPhone 5 is a replacement launcher that makes your Android phone's screen look almost exactly like an iPhone 5's. The main home screen's icons look like duplicates of iOS 6's. By default, the launcher starts with four rows of icons, but you can switch to five.

As great as the launcher looks, it does have some limitations that might prevent you from running it all the time. For example, you can't rearrange the icons on the screens and you lose widget support.

Also, while most of the iOS 6 app icons correlate to their Android counterparts, some, like Passbook, do not. Tapping on the Passbook icon will launch an ad, which is a reminder that Fake iPhone 5 is an ad-supported app.

Tip: To switch back to your previous launcher, tap the Menu key on your Android phone, then Advanced > Switch Launcher.

That's it. Will you use Fake iPhone 5 as your primary launcher? If not, let us know what alternative launchers you prefer for your Android phone.

(Via Ghacks)