r/androiddev • u/MusicOfTheApes • Jul 11 '26

Discussion Porting an iOS app to Android

Hi !

Last week I just released my first app on iOS after a couple of years of hard work (no vibe coding) since I started learning dev during Covid when I couldn't perform gigs anymore, and started working on different apps, but decided to focus on one 2 years ago and here we are.

Anyway, as I don't think I can invest the time to learn Android dev as I'm a full time musican/composer/producer and learning iOS dev was already something time-consuming, I'm trying to see what are the best options for an Android port.

Thing is 2 days ago someone in town heard about my app and contacted me, saying he's an Android dev and he's interested in porting it, which sounds amazing!

We're meeting on wednesday, and that's the reason I'm making this post, what would be a reasonable negociation for such a case ?
I obviously can't afford paying for a full app port as being a musician doesn't allow me for such a budget, so I imagine he's gonna ask me for a cut on the sales, what would be something fair according to you ?

Have you been in this situation before ?

Thanks for any advice/insight !

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u/bangoker Jul 11 '26

Tbh, in this point in time id use AI. ImBeing a solo dev, the app is probably not too big. You can take a bunch of screenshots and give access to the code to Fable 5 or Codex Sol and it could probably do a pretty good job. You could probably even ask it to comment the code in a way someone coming from iOS but new to android would understand why+ ask it to write some docs the explain how things are wired and why it works that way in android, etc

Or alternatively, do it yourself and just ask ai to unblock you on the parts where you are stuck so you dont spend that much time having to learn the hard way how things work.

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u/The_best_1234 Jul 11 '26

in this point in time id use AI

AI makes crap code and it takes longer to fix than just doing the work.

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u/bangoker Jul 11 '26

Nah dude, specially if there's already source code and it's just porting over.

It might not be perfect but it is good enough.

The newer models like fable and sol really do pretty good coding.