Installing Android On Your Nintendo Switch, Because Why Not?

In a continuing trend of ‘but does it run Android?’, enterprising folk over at the XDA-Developers forum have found a way to get LineageOS (the successor to CyanogenMod) installed and running on the Nintendo Switch using Switchroot source code. Promising to release the necessary files to replicate this effort has obviously made other people at XDA-Developers forum as well as on Reddit rather excited.

As for the question of ‘why?’, one has to remember that internally the Nintendo Switch is an Nvidia Tegra X1-based system with a Maxwell GPU, making it definitely one of the nicer ARM-based portable systems out there if one wants to do some Android-based gaming. Even better, the entire Nvidia Shield TV-derived ROM runs from the SD card, so just popping out this SD card is sufficient to return to playing Switch games.

Currently a few nagging issues still have to be worked out with this ROM, such as touchscreen issues, sleep mode not working, auto-rotation not working as communication with the sensor needs to be figured out, and so on. This should make it clear that it won’t be a production ready piece of software, but definitely something that should be used at your own risk.

While it shouldn’t harm the Switch, one should probably not try it on a Switch one cares deeply about. Just in case.

19 thoughts on “Installing Android On Your Nintendo Switch, Because Why Not?

  1. I can see buying a switch and turn it into a “gaming” android tablet become popular especially once the successor has been released.
    Isn’t there also a “remote desktop” streaming client app for Android for Valve’s Steam? I can see that be a popular combo.

    1. Yea steam link. It allows you to stream from a steam installed and enabled pc. It’s basically like nvidia gamestream/moonlight app. The switch would make a great platform for gamepad friendly pc games.

  2. Been keeping an eye on Switch homebrew development, and now with the Lite announced, the hardware is at the price where I’m willing to bite the bullet (was never interested in docked mode to begin with).

    Unfortunately, seems almost a certainty that the Lite will fix whatever loopholes all the current software use…

    1. I understand the loopholes are not patchable by software(?), but it’s already been fixed even in the Switches for sale now.
      I have a Switch, I’ll check whether it’s one of the ones that are not patchable, I don’t really want to be kicked from my Nintendo account though. So I might wait a while before trying this Android version.

      1. Android has virtually no risk of getting your Nintendo account banned. The telemetry from Horizon OS, the Switch’s operating system is completely bypassed. Your account should be safe if you use this. I can’t say the same about your system though, since this is still in beta.

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