No topic and no launcher: On the old Redmi Note 12 they launched real iOS 16, we have a video

Enthusiasts around custom ROMs got a system running on the Redmi Note 12 4G that it was never supposed to have. On a 2023 phone with a Snapdragon 685, iOS 16 booted up. This isn’t an Android topic, launcher, or emulator. The phone starts straight into an open XNU core from Apple, and on top of it runs a system from an iPhone X.

So we looked directly into the project on GitHub, where the author openly writes what works and what doesn’t. It’s definitely not meant for everyday use.

How did iOS 16 get onto Redmi Note 12

Apple publishes the source code of the XNU kernel that iOS and macOS are based on. The ios-topaz project adapted it to the hardware of the Redmi Note 12 4G. On top of the kernel runs an unmodified iOS 16.7.16 from the iPhone X, so the system treats the phone as an iPhone X. The iOS itself isn’t part of the project. Anyone who wants to try it has to download the iPhone X install package from Apple and assemble the system themselves.

The port is based on an older project, ios-sweet, for the Redmi Note 10 Pro, which was created a few days earlier. Development there is more advanced: the home screen boots, touch and buttons work, and you can open Settings or the Control Center. However, from an open app you can’t go back to the home screen yet. In his profile, the Note 12 port author admits he wrote the code with the help of artificial intelligence.

What works and what doesn’t on Redmi Note 12 4G

According to the project description, as of October 18 the phone should boot to the locked iOS screen in about 3 minutes. The touch controller is in development, but they haven’t tested it on the phone yet. So the phone can’t be unlocked for now. Buttons don’t work either; nor do Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, the mobile network, sound, the camera, sensors, or GPS.

The display is rendered by the processor only because the Adreno 610 graphics controller is missing. Animations are therefore slow. The system uses only 4 out of 8 cores, because the power-saving cores can’t work with the 16 KB memory pages that iOS needs. After boot, the phone shows the date December 31. iOS security mechanisms are disabled. The port also only counts on the 4 GB version of the phone. Support for the 6 GB version is just planned for now.

A similar port is also running on a OnePlus phone

XimiTime reminds you that the oosexgangdevs team previously booted iOS 16 on a OnePlus Ace 6T. In their photos you can see the home screen, YouTube in Safari, and a terminal. Note: in the photos below, it’s OnePlus, not Redmi.

According to XimiTime, touch and volume buttons work there. In the phone info, iOS 16.5 and an iPhone X model are shown. At startup, it shows a custom menu where you can launch iOS or return to Android.

Both projects build on older attempts with the XNU kernel on third-party hardware. Developer j0sh1x once showed iOS 7 on an old HTC HD2, also with a working touch display.

We don’t recommend trying it

The project author straight up says it’s an experiment and not for everyday use. Installation requires an unlocked bootloader, a Linux PC, and kernel compilation via GitHub. The system is written to the partition with user data, so all Android data gets erased. Boot partitions remain untouched—the kernel only boots from memory via fastboot.

XimiTime writes about Chinese developers, but the author’s profile on GitHub lists Russia. Work is still pending on the touchscreen, buttons, Wi‑Fi, a speaker, and a graphics controller. If you have a Redmi Note 12 4G as your main phone, leave it on Android. If you’ve got an old device at home and you feel like experimenting, the project is public and changes are added every day.

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