How to make an iClone for less than $20

Getting the “look” of the iPhone menus

The first and most obvious part that we need to change is the look of Android: it just looks nothing like Apple’s iOS.

Let’s change that.

We’ve written about this a few times now, but Espier Launcher is still one of the best home screen replacement tools around. It’s free and literally switches your Android over into an iPhone-styled device.

Simply install it, hit the home button on your Android, and then select Espier. The first time you run Espier, it’ll present you with a quick introduction to how it works that you can either go through or skip.

Basically, it works exactly the way iOS does, so if you’ve ever used an iPhone, you’ll be at home here.

You can drag left and right on the menu and you’ll get shortcut icons only. No widgets or homescreens to deal with: just icon-based menus. Flick all the way to the left and just like on iOS, you’ll see a search box allowing you to search your entire device.

Just like on iOS, icons can be moved around easily. Simply hold an icon down with your finger until they wiggle and then drag them around. Once you’re done, hit the “back” button and they’ll stop wiggling.

You can also group icons into a folder just like you can on iOS. Simply get the icons wiggling again by holding one down, and then drag it into another icon. A box will appear around both and you can let go, a folder being created that you can rename. Like on iOS, you can drag shortcut icons in and out of here with ease.

And still – like iOS – you can remove apps by hitting the “x” in the corner of the apps while they wiggle. In fact, this is actually an improvement on the way you’re normally forced to uninstall apps from Android.

We’re big fans of what Espier does, simplifying Android and even mapping icons for phone, contacts, and messages to the parts of the phone that use them. It won’t change those sections to look like an iPhone, but it does make the experience closer to an iDevice.