Changes

:''This page is about software that emulates iOS on other hardware, like desktops.''{{for|emulators that run on IOSiOS|Emulators on iOS}}

Formerly, iOS was used for both Apple's phones and tablets. Then, the iOS brand was split into two parts in 2019, with iOS now being the OS exclusively used in the iPhone and the now-defunct [[Apple_iPod|iPod Touch]]. The second half, named iPadOS, is a fork of iOS for iPads that makes use of their larger screens, hence its name. Most iOS apps and games work on iPadOS.

Unlike its direct competitor, [[Android emulators|Android]], there are practically no usable emulators, as the official iOS SDK (macOS-only) only allows for running your own projects, i.e., they run code generated for an x86 target rather than ARM code as used by iOS. Some simulators Similar to most of the Android emulators, some emulators (e.g., [[BlackThunder]]) make uses two-step approach, making use of the simulator in the iOS SDK to run a few chosen iOS apps that are recompiled for x86. Unlike previous emulation trails, BlackThunder first loads a highly trimmed Hackintosh image via VirtualBox, which loads Xcode and an iOS simulator into it, then runs decompiled iOS apps recompiled for the x86 architecture. Appetize.io and other tools that claim to emulate iOS on a web browser are in reality just the iOS simulator in XCode wrapped around a cloud stream to the web browser, and like the iOS XCode simulator, need the source code to run. More recently, touchHLE managed to get a few older iPhone OS apps running by recreating some of iOS’s standard libraries and emulating just the iPhone’s CPU, and nearly the same time, QEMU-iOS got released and can successfully emulate iPhone OS 1.0 on an iPod Touch 1st generation, albeit with bugs.

Also tons of obsolete non-active iOS "emulator" exists, see [https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=IOS_emulators&oldid=72605 this page] for more.{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;width:100%"

|[https://github.com/hikari-no-yumetouchHLE/touchHLE/releases 0.2.1{{TouchHLEVer}}]

|[https://appdb.touchhle.org/ 3028%<br/><small>46 52 out of 152 188 reported titles</small>]

|?N/A

!colspan|Unnamed iOS emulator|align="9"left|{{Icon|Windows}}|Unreleased due to touchHLE|?|?|?|{{✗}}|{{✗}}|Mobile / ARM{{✗}}

|[https://applegithub.com/macos macOS] 11 (Big Sur) and up<br/><small>[https://support.apple.com/guide/app-store/iphone-ipad-apps-mac-apple-silicon-fird2c7092dazydeco/mac (Not an emulator)aah aah]</small>|align=left|{{Icon|macOS}}<ref group=N>Requires Mac computers with Apple Silicon (M series) processors.</ref>|14.1 (Sonoma)?

|[https://github.com/hikari-no-yume/touchHLE/releases 10.02.2]

|[https://appdb.touchhle.org/ 3028%<br/><small>46 52 out of 152 188 reported titles</small>]

==Comparison==;Emulators:;macOS 11 and up[[touchHLE]]:Since macOS 11 Big Sur:A promising new endeavor that aims to run older iOS apps by reimplementing standard libraries instead of internal components. Because of this [[High/Low_level_emulation|very high-level approach]], no dump of the 17th major operating system is required. Its initial target is iPhone OS 2.x, with plans to support other 32-bit iOS versions, mainly 3.x and 4.x, as well as the iPad. Development started in December 2022, and its initial 0.1.0 release came out in February 2023. [https://appdb.touchhle.org/ touchHLE supports a handful of apps], with most apps that do not crash on the start working absolutely perfectly. touchHLE supports running IPA files directly. A game controller is required to control the accelerometer. touchHLE has an app archive that currently only has two apps being touch and go and it’s lite version, which are licensed to be free to use with touchHLE. Unfortunately, touchHLE does not currently have a “canary” branch which gets all the additions of it’s multiple concurrent pull requests.  :;QEMU-iOS::Previously unnamed and referred to as “devos50’s qemu fork”, Based on earlier work emulating the S5L8900 and the iPhone 11 in QEMU. It can emulate an iPod Touch 1G running iOS 1.0, including iBoot, the kernel, and the macOS lineSpringboard, although it requires a modified NOR and NAND image. Some features, such as audio and Wi-Fi, are not emulated, and there are multiple crashes. About a year later, the operating system for Mac computers same user managed to run iPhone OS 2 on an emulated iPod Touch 2G, however internet connectivity is not figured out yet, and nobody has yet ran a 3rd party app via filesystem hacks as of now, as both networking and USB (iTunes) are unemulated and cannot be installed regularly. :;MAME::Very basic iPhone 2G support for available [https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/apple/iphone2g.cpp here] <small>(that cannot boot iOS and iPadOS applications for , nor even get to the Apple Siliconlogo)</small>. '''Unlikely to ever be completed.''' :;BlackThunder::Closed-based Macssource, commercial iOS emulator that can run a few commercial iOS apps. The official iOS SDK (macOS-only) only allows for running your own projects, i.e. they run code generated for an x86 target rather than ARM code as used by iOS. However, some emulators, e.g. BlackThunder, make use of the simulator in the iOS SDK to run a few chosen iOS apps that are recompiled for x86. Unlike previous emulation trails, BlackThunder first loads a highly trimmed Hackintosh image via VirtualBox, which loads Xcode and an iOS simulator into it, then runs iOS apps cannot be installed that are decompiled and recompiled for the x86 architecture. :;Unnamed iOS Emulator::This is a Low-Level Emulator made by user “K-8-L-Y-N” discussed on the Darling Discord Server, which can run Springboard and the Calculator. They said it’s their own codename and own interpreter. It does not support touch at all, making it almost useless. It only emulates the kernel and the user provides a filesystem DMG. They’ve gotten iOS 1.0 springboard to boot, which they said was not too difficult and said they were also using iOS 1.0 dyld directly . They said it was a Low-Level-Emulation project as they had to emulate the CPU. They also said the kernel emulation is shorty and it only works. They said they’ll never release it in the state that is in, and refuses to even work on it due to touchHLE’s existence. It does load the original frameworks but doesn’t emulate UIKit. The interpreter was for x86 and interprets ARM. They got it to boot via emulated/recreated parts of the darwin/bsd kernel. Again, it’s emulating the kernel and not doing BSD syscalls on windows. When they feel like the code is in a better state, they do want to release it under the unlicense. However they do not plan to ever work on it anymore due to touchHLE. They say the code is in some pretty messy C++ stuff. They plan on rewriting in C# as they feel more comfortable continuing it in C#. :;TruEmu::QEMU-t8030, also known as TruEmu, is an iPhone 11 emulated in QEMU, however, the current version with a published source cannot boot. TruEmu is a software that offers support for iOS 14 up to the latest iOS 16 and is built to work on iPhone 6S SecureROM hardware. It also provides out-of-box kernel debugging support and USB support (with Firmware Restore) and utilizes Apple DRM's custom CPU features such as SPRR/GXF and custom PAC. Additionally, TruEmu is open-source software. TruEmu is made to counteract the paid Corellium’s monopoly in iOS emulation for security reasearch. The creator’s mastodon and X (formally Twitter) shows work on full SEP emulation and it booting to SpringBoard and operating the Calculator and Settings apps, but it is currently unreleased, with only minor graphical glitches. The day videos of it’s operation were posted on social medias, a user made an issue about it and archived the repo with no comment, only with a comment before it was emulated saying that he was working on multitouch. The reason it was unreleased remains uncertain. This can He may be bypassed using developing a very capable iOS emulator, may have been hired by Corellium, or he may have been stopped by an Apple employee or has been paranoid about possible Copyright issues and decided to not release it nor make a comment.  :;iEmu::QEMU-s5l89xx-port (also known without the -port) (2012), also known as iEmu, is another failed attempt to get an IPA iPhone running in QEMU, this time the 1st generation. The last commits were made in 2013. Any Android app going by the name iEmu is a *scam* and should be avoided. Nowadays, a malicious APK file going by the '''iEmu''' moniker is also being circulated on blogs run by script kiddies claiming to offer a way to run iOS apps on Android. More often than not, they're uploaded with the intention of generating revenue from impressionable users (through pay-per-click URL shorteners) who fall easily for those types of scams. The project started in 2011 but got mysteriously abandoned two years later before anything usable surfaced. All pages related to the project were removed. It's speculated Apple had a hand in this. The name is based on the part number of the original iPhone, and PlayCoveralso is known to be called iVM, however, this is unconfirmed. :;unidbg:: ''unidbg'' (2020) is a developer library that allows emulating Android binaries, however, "experimental" iOS support was added sometime in 2021. It is unknown if any apps are supported. :;aah:: aah (arm64 architecture handler) uses unicorn and libffi to run iOS arm64 binaries on x86_64 macOS, with varying degrees of success. Most things will fail to launch because they need frameworks/Sideloadysymbols that aren't available on macOS. aah relies on the Mac Catalyst frameworks that are present on macOS 10.15. Additionally aah requires the source code of the app to run it, like the iOS simulator/emulator in XCode. https://twitter.com/maczydeco/status/1155588054486310912 https://github.com/zydeco/aah :;ipasim:: ''ipasim'' (2017) is a high-level emulator written in C++ that uses Microsoft's winObjC to recompile 64-bit iOS apps into apps in live. It doesn't support much apps except for really basic ones. It was more focused on apps than games.

:;[[touchHLE]]xnu-qemu-arm64::A promising new endeavor that aims to run older iOS apps security research emulator created by reimplementing standard libraries instead of internal componentsAleph. Because of this [[High/Low_level_emulation|very high-level approach]]Much like TruEmu, no dump of the operating system is required. Its initial target is iPhone OS 2.x, with plans to support other 32-bit it can partially run iOS versions, mainly 3.x and 4.x, as well as the iPad. Development started in December 2022, and its initial 0.1.0 release came out in February 2023. [https://appdb.touchhle.org/ touchHLE supports a handful of apps], with most apps that do not crash on the start launch services working absolutely perfectly. touchHLE supports running IPA files directly. A game controller is required to control the accelerometer. touchHLE has an app archive that currently only has two apps being touch and go and it’s lite version, which are licensed to be free to use with touchHLE. Unfortunately, touchHLE does not currently have a “canary” branch which gets all the additions of it’s multiple concurrent pull requestscorrectly.

; QEMU-iOSHypervisor:;Corellium:Previously unnamed and referred to as “devos50’s qemu fork”, Based on earlier work emulating :A service made by the S5L8900 and Israeli company of the iPhone 11 in QEMU. It can emulate an iPod Touch 1G running same name that runs any modern iOS 1.0devices, including iBootsome Android devices, or bring-your-own IoT devices on either the kernelcloud or a self-hosted server. Compatibility is basically perfect, and they have hardware iOS 10.3 to the Springboardlatest iOS version, although it requires a modified NOR with debugging features and NAND image. Some featuressecurity tools, such as audio and Wi-Fi, are not emulated, and there are multiple crasheswell as IPA installing. About a year later, They also have iPhone 7 to the same user managed to latest iPhone in terms of hardware. [[Hypervisors#Type_1_hypervisors|The devices run iPhone OS 2 on an emulated iPod Touch 2GARM hypervisor called "CHARM"]]. '''For individuals, however internet connectivity it costs 3 USD per hour''' for most use excluding some cybersecurity tools. The site also prohibits users under 18 from using their service. '''The service is made for cybersecurity, not figured out yet, and nobody has yet ran a 3rd party app via filesystem hacks as of now, as both networking and USB (iTunes) are unemulated and cannot be installed regularlygeneral use'''.

;CorelliumNative:A service made by ;macOS 11 and up::Since macOS 11 Big Sur, the Israeli company 17th major operating system of the same name that runs any modern iOS devices, some Android devicesmacOS line, or bring-your-own IoT devices on either the cloud or a selfoperating system for Mac computers has support for iOS and iPadOS applications for Apple Silicon-hosted serverbased Macs. Emulation is basically perfectHowever, and they have hardware iOS 10.3 to the latest iOS version, with debugging features and security tools, as well as IPA installing. They also have iPhone 7 some apps cannot be installed directly due to the latest iPhone in terms of hardwareApple DRM. The devices run on This can be bypassed using an ARM hypervisorIPA file and PlayCover/Sideloady. For individuals, it costs 3 USD per hour for most use excluding some cybersecurity tools[https://support. The site also prohibits users under 18 from using their serviceapple. '''The service is made for cybersecurity, not general use'''com/guide/app-store/iphone-ipad-apps-mac-apple-silicon-fird2c7092da/mac See this page].

:;MAMECycada:Very basic iPhone 2G support available : ''Cycada'' (2014), formally known as Cider and Chameleon before that is an unreleased research project made by a few folks at Columbia that ran iOS 5.1.1 and experimentally iOS 6 apps at a high, but not perfect quality and compatibility (see paper for list). It is based on pirated iOS libraries. It is seriously not recommended to initiate contact with the developers of the project, as they never planned on releasing it and want people to use their paper to reproduce it with "significant effort". All attempts to release it by contacting them have resulted in them saying they are not interested. You may try to recreate Cycada on your own, provided that you know the internals of Android, iOS, XNU, and Linux. Out of 69 tested apps, 19 apps fully work, 10 work with minor bugs that do not affect functionality, 15 have major errors that affect functionality, and 27 crash. Only [https://github.com/mamedevdarlinghq/mamedarling/blobissues/master1168#issuecomment-1115143186 one recreation] is known to exist, which is also unreleased, and it was made by the creator of DarlingHQ along with two other unknown individuals. It took about a year to develop, and one component of it was released. The one exception where some original code was published was [https:/src/mamegithub.com/appledarlinghq/iphone2g.cpp darling-newlkm here], to be reused in Darling later on. Jeremy Andrus was accused of being a sellout for leaving the project to work as a kernel programmer (Now a Cloud Computing Efficiency worker) for Apple. The project booted many 32-bit iOS apps successfully, albeit slowly. The last update to this project was in [https://dl.acm. org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3135974.3135981 '''Unlikely to ever be completed.2017''']. (NOTE: If you search "Cider APK", you will get iPhone 12 launcher adware) To see the paper, its specifications, its compatible apps, and possibly recreate it, see [http://jeremya.com/files/pub/2015/02/andrus-thesis.pdf here]

;BlackThunder:The official iOS SDK Compatibility layer (macOS-only) only allows for running your own projects, i[[Compatibility_layers|..e. they run code generated for an x86 target rather than ARM code as used by ]])?:;Darling::Although no iOS. Howeversupport exists at the moment, some simulators, e[https://www.gdarlinghq. BlackThunder, make use of the simulator in the iOS SDK org/ Darling] wants to run a few chosen iOS apps that are recompiled add support for x86. [[BlackThunder]] is a closed-source, commercial iOS simulator that can run a few commercial iOS appsin the “long term”. Unlike previous emulation trailsAlthough not stated, BlackThunder first loads a highly trimmed Hackintosh image via VirtualBox, which loads Xcode and an they might add support for other platforms based on iOS simulator into it, then runs iOS apps that are decompiled and recompiled for such as tvOS or watchOS in the x86 architecturefuture.

''These are '''This table focusing on early (1-to-6)''' iOS operating system features. This list only includes and crucial hardware features that can be possible to emulated through software or will be possible in the near future. Including everything/or niche modern iOS features (e.g. [[List_of_games_that_support_Pressure-Sensitive_Face_Buttons#iOS_Emulation|3D Touch / Pressure Sensitive Buttons]], [https://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationOniOS/comments/1dcrgy1/new_game_mode_coming_to_ios_18/ Game Mode]) would result in an endless list.''

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; vertical-alignwidth:middle;100%"

| colspan=2 | [[Wikipedia:IPhone_hardwareList_of_games_that_support_tracked_motion_controllers#SensorsiOS_Emulation|Motion sensors]]

|rowspan! colspan=9 5 | [[Wikipedia:List_of_Apple_codenames#iOS|OS versionversions]]|-| colspan=2 |iPhone OS 1

| colspan=2 |iPhone OS 2<br/><small>iPhone OS 2.2.1 was the last version compatible solely with ARMv6 chips.

| colspan=2 |iPhone OS 3<br/><small>Supported both ARMv6 and ARMv7-A chips.</br>| style="background: Orange;"|WIP{{✓}} <br> <small>(Only 3.0)</small>

| colspan=2 |iOS 4<br/><small>iOS 4.2.1 was the last version supported ARMv6 chips.</small>

| colspan=2 |iOS 5

| colspan=2 |iOS 6<br/><small>iOS 6.1.6 was the last version compatible solely with 32-bit ARMv7-A chips.</small>

| colspan=2 |iOS 7 to Present Version10<br/><small>Supports both 64-bit ARMv8''x''-A and 32-bit ARMv7-A chips. iOS 10.3.4 was the last version that supported 32-bit chips.</small>|style="background:{{{color|#FFD2D2}}};"|[https://github.com/hikari-no-yume/touchHLE/issues/181#issuecomment-1777098259 Never]| {{✗}}| {{~}} (iOS 10.3.3 and 10.3.4 only)|-| colspan=2 | iOS 11 to ''present''

| {{✓}} (iOS 10.3.3+)

| colspan=2 |iPadOS

| colspan=2 |WatchOS

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; vertical-alignwidth:middle;100%"

|rowspan=4 6 | Post-Processing

| [[Shaders_and_filters|Filters]]<br/><small>[[Shaders_and_filters#Tonemapping|HDR tonemapping]] etc.</small>

| [[Wikipedia:Comparison_gallery_of_image_scaling_algorithms|Post-rendering scaling]]<br/><small>(Sharp bilinear, Lanczos and [[Wikipedia:GPUOpen#FidelityFX_Super_Resolution|FSR 1]])</small>

| rowspan=1 4 | Misc| [[Wikipedia:Variable_refresh_rate|Variable Refresh Rate compatible]]| {{N}}| {{N}}|-| [[Virtual_reality#VR_game_room_simulations|EmuVR support]]| colspan=11 | Exclusive to [https://www.emuvr.net/wiki/Installation_Guide#Downloads libretro cores] at the moment. So there is no support.|-| AI Service<br/><small>With the help of <abbr title="optical character recognition">OCR</abbr> and other techniques, the AI service can provide a live translation of a game, or text-to-speech capabilities for the visually impaired among other things, either on demand or automatically.</small>| colspan=11 | Exclusive to [https://docs.libretro.com/guides/ai-service/ libretro cores] at the moment. So there is no support.|-

Many of the currently available '''"simulatorssolutions"''' only try recreating popular iOS apps (like browsers) in a PC application with no real emulation involved. Some notable [[Emulator scams|scams]] in such fashion are called '''iPadian''' or variations on the name, and are often '''malware'''. iPadian itself is not a real emulator and cannot actually emulate any iOS, iPadOS, or watchOS code and just use recreations that are limited in functionality and are not ports. “AIR iPhone” is also a simulator in Adobe Flash. Malware on Android also goes by the name “iEmu”, “Cider” and “Cycada”, based on the unfinished and unrelated unreleased projects of the same name, and is sometimes iOS launcher software that is possibly infected by malware. iOS emulators that aren't scams operate like XCode, where they cannot run non-development builds.

*[[Wikipedia:Comparison_of_mobile_operating_systems|Comparison of mobile operating systems]](Wikipedia)*Reddit: [https://www.reddit.com/r/LegacyJailbreak/ r/LegacyJailbreak](old devices) [https://www.reddit.com/r/Jailbreak/ r/Jailbreak] (new devices)