We’re not sure why you’d want something like this, but someone modified an Android phone to use Apple’s Lightning port instead of the industry-standard USB-C connection.
The change was made by Ken Pillonel, who earlier on the internet for a much more sensible project: bringing USB-C to an iPhone.
Pillonel’s video announcing the Lightning Android phone was published on April 1, but while that ironic date was a deliberate choice, the change is real. Pillonel said he wanted to “balance the chaos” caused by his unveiling of a USB-C iPhone.
“I don’t expect anyone in their right mind to want to do this with their device. It was just for fun, I just wanted to see if I could do it,” he told Engadget.
Pillonel chose the low-end Samsung Galaxy A51 for this project. It was not an easy project, as it turns out. Pillonel explained to Engadget, “The Lightning cables sold by Apple aren’t ‘dumb’, they will only charge Apple devices. So I had to find a way to trick the cable into thinking it was on an Apple device. was plugged in. And the whole thing has to fit inside the phone, which is another challenge in itself.”
The Lightning Android phone, for some reason.
There’s a short video on YouTube showing the device in action (it can both charge and transfer data) and a few brief glimpses of the work that went into it, but Pillonel promises a new video will be uploaded to his channel soon. uploaded with a more thorough explanation. He took a similar cadence with the USB-C iPhone.
In the unlikely event that you really want such a device, you’re out of luck – he has no intention of selling it.
Apple has been using the Lightning cable in iPhones for nearly 10 years, all the way back to the iPhone 5 in September 2012. When it was introduced, then-Apple marketing VP Phil Schiller said it was a “connector for the next decade.”
Apple has started using USB-C in most of its iPads, which previously used Lightning, but iPhones are still on Lightning. Tech commentators have been speculating for some time that Apple might be switching to its phones as well, but given the recent introduction of the new vision for MagSafe, it seems just as likely that Apple will drop the port entirely in favor of wireless charging.
