As Android gains ground, iOS may not be enough for some brands. And with limited budgets and development constraints, sometimes you can't give your app the full "Android Treatment" it should deserve. I've put together a mini guide to go over some common ways to get your iOS app over to Android, while keeping it consistent (mostly) with today's Android patterns.

1. Moving from iPhone to Android
Quick lesson on common design changes when moving to Android
http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/6/2775611/npd-group-q4-2011-us-smartphone-sales-android-iphone

2. This is just a quick, high-level primer to help you have a conversation
around moving your app to Android.

3. Some of the main differences...
x
The navigation goes away, and is “hidden” in a standard Android menu

4. Some of the main differences...
x
The “back button” is also in the same menu area

5. Some of the main differences...
x
As well as search

6. Different ways for adapting to Android
Menu Only
Totally Custom
Keep everything the same
Move to the top
Full Android
Moving to Android 4.0...

7. Menu Only
Where the app basically
stays the same, but
moves navigation
functionally to the Android
menu bar.

12. Totally Custom
Where the design patterns
are not common to iOS or
Android, and stay the
same cross-platform.

15. Keep everything the same
Specifically break with
Android patterns to keep
the app the same as the
iOS app.

17. Move to the top
Where the app basically
stays the same, but the iOS
menu bar is moved to the top
of the Android app, while
most other options stay
within the Android menu bar.

23. Full Android
Considerations were
made to use the Android
app patterns to their
fullest - sometimes very
foreign to a iOS customer.

27. Ice Cream Sandwich*
* There are a new set of design guidelines (finally!) for Android with the 4.0 release.
Overview and examples:
http://www.android.com/about/ice-cream-sandwich/
http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/new-4-0.html
The main issues currently around 4.0 is the REALLY slow adoption around new Android versions:
http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html

29. Jeremy Johnson
jeremy@23hd.com
@jeremyjohnson
www.jeremyjohnsononline.com