

Developing an Android Version of an iOS App? - Morgan17

Hey<p>I&#x27;m in the process of building an app on iOS similar to a dating app (it&#x27;s not a dating app) we&#x27;d like to start the android version. So far the iOS build is 6 months. Will an Android version take the same amount of time or less as we have the initial research&#x2F; features and user journeys complete? Does anyone have any experience with building one app and taking it across to another OS?
======
alc90
As an Android developer who worked on a fair share of apps for both Android
and iOS I can tell you that it depends on a number of factors and it should
take aprox. the same time as for iOS if:

1\. The feature set is already defined and the flow of the app understood 2\.
The design you're using is clear and does not have iOS elements that you want
to be replicated on Android (I've worked with a couple of different clients
that have a design created with the iOS guidelines in mind and it's a bit of a
hassle if you want to reproduce it on Android). So clear designs and Android
compatible. 3\. The OS version - if it's below 4.0 it will increase the dev
time

~~~
Morgan17
Thanks! I don't think we have specific iOS features in the app. There is a
search algorithm, geo-tagging and contacts sync.

~~~
alc90
A search algorithm I don't think it should take more on iOS than on Android,
geo-tagging can be done relatively easy on Android also and contacts sync it's
pretty straightforward also.

So I guess it shouldn't take longer on Android.

P.S. If you need help on the Android part - I would be glad to help out.

~~~
Morgan17
Thanks for the info. Whereabouts are you based?

~~~
alc90
I'm from Iasi, Romania ;)

~~~
Morgan17
Cool, how long have you been working on Android development?

~~~
alc90
For almost 3 & 1/2 years now (1 & 1/2 as a freelancer and 2 at a company).

------
dottrap
My experience has been Android is about 4 times as hard as iOS.

You might be able to reduce this by reducing the number of older OS versions
you plan to support, and if you don't have performance sensitive content or
content with high memory requirements, you completely avoid the NDK (but
usually needed for the aforementioned high performance/memory situations), and
write off certain hardware configurations.

~~~
Morgan17
Thanks that's what I thought, we are actually outsourcing all development but
had hoped that it wouldn't be as long as the iOS build.

