Whole website dedicated to porting Windows Phone 7 UI to Android

April 20, 2011 | By Surur

The Windows Phone 7 UI has won over many more people than have actually bought the handsets, and it seems it is at present all the rage to emulate it, both on the iPhone and Android.

In fact this has extended so far as to whole websites and communities being set up to create applications and launchers with the user interface, much like the iPhone was emulated on Windows Mobile two years ago.

The WP7Android Project aims to bring the Windows Phone 7 UI to Android with a full selection of apps meant to provide the same user experience of the WP7 OS. They plan to release a total of 9 apps released separately, including a Launcher, Dialer, Contacts, Mail, Message, Browser, Camera, Gallery and Zune-Player. The video above shows the Zune player in action.

Hopefully the Android users wasting their time poorly emulating Windows Phone 7 on their stuttering phones will get a taste for the real thing and upgrade to Windows Phone 7.5 in a few months time.

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged android, video, windows phone 7

HoldupHey

They just want all android users to get acquainted with WP7, because pretty soon every OEM will be dumping android faster than you can say google. With the latest news of Apple suing samsung, their parts manufacturer , for copying the iphone and ipad, im certain OEMs will begin questioning their strategy. Even if Apple and Samsung reach a licensing agreement, not only will Samsung and other OEMS be paying proceeds to Apple, but to Microsoft as well. The proof that android is not free is starting to unravel. Also not forgetting the fees OEMs also have to pay for the google services such as market. It doesn't seem like such a wise strategy anymore, and instead of dealing with this headache, they will dump the OS and pay a fee to microsoft,and have protection from all litigation and can focus on fighting one battle instead of many.

http://twitter.com/chmun77 @chmun77

Well said.

Android always like to mimic other rival OSes regardless of their UIs. Which indirectly means that Android UI is not as intuitive as its rival OSes? If you ask me, Android really does look pretty the same as iOS in terms of icons and multiple home screens. The only advantage it has is the widgets. But I bet even with the widgets, most users will still prefer to launch the full app instead of just looking at the tiny little update news space.

Brianna

Why don't they just port the whole Windows Phone OS over?

I am pretty sure most of HTC phones with Snapdragon can run Windows Phone 7 without much compatibility issues.

HoldupHey

the cpu is only one aspect of hardware. everything else could be different. the radio,the camera,the wifi module,the touch screen controller,the tilt sensor,the audio processor,the power management chip. For that, you need the drivers,and those drivers dont exist.

kdk

Firstly, im pretty impressed by what these guys have done, but…

The spacing between items in the list, the font sizes, the lack of spacing between album art makes it look pretty shit… which just goes to show how amazing the wp7 interface is. A lot of people dismiss the metro UI because they think its just text… but its typography and spacing…. and this just proves it is very difficult to get right.

Also to nitpick, the now playing tile should be the album art, not the artist image.

ojojoj

it looks shitty because it is made by android developers, the only kind of developers in the world who dont know shit about design and think tethering and widgets are more important than fucking user interface design.

tnuctihs

LMAO!
HoldupHey

well said my friend. and might i add snes emulation, cuz u know, its not like they've played it in the last 25 fuckin years.

Adamvm

Actually my biggest reservation about getting an Windows phone, as I know all the stuff that should of been there at launch is making it in, is still those big, square, mono colored tiles. So I just for kicks paid 99 cents for one of those WP7 app launchers to maybe, kinda get an idea of what those clunky looking tiles would look like on my phone. Live or not, they are just not fun to look at. If you could put a different picture on each one, I could deal. So anyway, I installed it, set it up and it lasted all of maybe an hour and now I'm back to my happy little icons now. At least my Android screen looks like my Windows 7 desktop to some extent, that says Windowsish. Well both MSFT and Apple have the "If we can't beat them, we'll sue them" thing going on. I like WP7 other than the tile thing, maybe I'll take a stab at learning to deal with them and give it a try some day, after Mango and other improvements naturally

zzz

You need to live with a WP7 for a few weeks to really appreciate its design. Single color theme may look boring initially but once you customize the screen with your own favorite apps/shortcuts with many different colors/pictures/live tiles, you will love it. There's nothing quite like it. Simple, elegant, yet very effective. MS really nailed this one.
Jessie

a.) LiveTiles is very unique – no fake LiveTile app overlay is going to emulate correctly
b.) It is fun to look at and I enjoy it a lot.. applications that support LiveTiles can be alive on the screen… no digging for junk when everything you care about is right there
c.) Microsoft and Apple are both protecting their marketshare and IP… if Google in all it's infinite wisdom to create a "free" product didn't pay attention to patents and IP well… that's their own issue – Google's market share makes them target and every OEM needs to realize that
kdk

Off the top of my head, I dont know if this still works… but you can unpin everything from your start screen and it just shows you the list of apps by default, so you dont have to deal with live tiles.

but, live tiles are awesome.

expectafight

yes you can still do that. Before I came up with the way I currently organize my tiles, I just went with out for a week.

ojojoj

Microsoft has a patent to the design of Windows Phone 7. IT IS ILLEGAL to copy the look and feel of wp7.

If they do not cease production of this, they will be sued for Patent infringement and Copyright infringement. mark my word. http://wmpoweruser.com/microsoft-files-for-a-star…

zzz

They filed for a trademark, not a patent. Either way yeah they can take you to a court.

Chris

It's like a boob job… might look and feel right, but it ain't real.

I'll be here all night ;D
koyce

This is sad
http://twitter.com/MistaWet @MistaWet

What they don't get about the WP7 experience is you can have the application but the it's how the hubs are deeply rooted into the whole OS that makes it magic. In regards to the Zune hub, it's the service dummy!

Also, do you notice their is no mention of Office or Xbox? Not gonna happen.

One advantage they may have over there is customization of the home screen. I love the simplicity of Metro but if they'd allow further customization of the color choices I'd be totally satisfied.

http://twitter.com/MistaWet @MistaWet

(correction) *Also, do you notice there's no mention*

Cristiano

Please, if you wanna to 'copy' something like this (this is a copy, sorry), change at least the name… don't ever ever mention Zune Player again. It will never stream things from zune pass, it will never download songs using zune pass, it will never be a zune player. Never.

Like… MetroDroid would be a better name to express that they wanna the cool Metro UI, but… a copy? Where are the innovation that the most people say about Adroid devs? You can do better guys!

Show how cool Metro UI is, show a new product, not a copy =(
jimski

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Thanks Android guys.
Onceawinmoguy

Oh well it seemed like cool flattery at first but the site has a total of 11 members….not much interest I guess.
Bernard Angustia

notice how no one is doing vice versa