Here’s proof that macOS can run on an iPhone – but don’t get too excited

Ever since Macs got Apple Silicon chips, Apple fans have wondered about the feasibility of running macOS on mobile devices, especially iPads, since the latest models are powered by the same chips inside Macs. Interestingly, a developer has now shown that this is indeed possible.

Duy Tran, a developer specializing in hacking Apple devices, shared details of his impressive work on Reddit. After much research and testing, he figured out how to run essential parts of macOS on an iPhone, although there are many limitations.

Running parts of macOS on the iPhone

He started by installing WindowServer, a critical macOS process responsible for rendering graphic elements on the screen, such as windows, icons, and visual effects. Essentially, every app running on macOS needs WindowServer, so being able to run it on iPhone is the first and probably the biggest step towards running Mac apps on iPhones and iPads.

But there was still a lot to be done. Most apps also require graphics acceleration to work, and this is a bit more complicated since macOS lacks drivers for iPhone chips. What Tran did was to use Metal drivers from the iPhone Simulator as a workaround. For those unfamiliar, iPhone Simulator is part of Xcode and lets developers test iOS apps on the Mac.

With basic graphics and user interface support, the developer was able to run a modified build of macOS 13.4 with a few essential system components, such as WindowServer, Finder, and the Dock, on his iPhone. To his surprise (and ours), it worked. He even showed an image of Xcode 15 running on the iPhone.

So what’s the catch? Does this mean we’ll finally have macOS for iPhones and iPads? Well, not exactly.

It’s still a complicated and rather limited process

Firstly, this is not possible on a regular iPhone or iPad in its default state. The whole process requires a jailbroken device, and the problem is, there’s no jailbreak tool available for the latest devices and iOS versions. For instance, Tran used an old iPhone XS Max running iOS 16.5.

At the same time, there are still a lot of things that don’t work properly. The hack doesn’t even support touch inputs, which requires the developer to use a physical keyboard and mouse connected remotely. While the developer acknowledges that this would work much better on an M1 iPad, for example, these iPads can’t be jailbroken on iPadOS 18 (nor iPadOS 26).

In other words, we’re still a long way from seeing an iPad running the full version of macOS, but it’s still nice to see this project as a proof of concept that, with the right tweaks, these devices can run a desktop operating system. But with iPadOS becoming more like macOS—along with rumors of a MacBook running an iPhone chip—perhaps this will no longer be necessary.

For those who are curious enough, the source code for the project to run macOS on a jailbroken iPhone or iPad is available on GitHub.