Samsung has published a new website called “iTest“. This webpage is aimed at iPhone users to give them a taste of Android. As an iPhone user, you’ll be asked to add the page to your home screen. This installs a Progressive Web App (PWA) that simulates an Android GUI and provides some demos of existing apps. Samsung states that
You’re about to get a little taste of Samsung, without changing phones. We can’t replicate every function, but you should quickly see that there’s nothing daunting about switching to the other side.
Using that app, you’ll actually get a good idea of how Samsung’s own Android user interface is working. For example, you can try out the phone app that simulates a phone call to New Zealand and you’ll hear a marketing message from Samsung. You’ll receive messages in the messenger app as well. You can also change the theme of your Android “device”. There is even a small side blow at Apple since you can find “Fortnite” in the Game Launcher, but obviously, you cannot play it – just watch a video.
Of course, Samsung is using the app to promote its other Galaxy products, like Galaxy Watch3, Galaxy Buds Pro, or Galaxy Buds Live. For example, clicking on the Google input field gives you the Google search result for “Samsung galaxy s21”.
As the top-level domain “.nz” implies, the marketing campaign has so far only been for New Zealand. Since the webpage can be accessed from everywhere, we’ll probably see an expansion of the marketing campaign to other countries in the future as well.
Putting aside the marketing aspect of the app, it shows how good Progressive Web Apps actually work. The user experience is smooth and the transitions between screens are nice. It is definitely worth giving the app a try. Naturally, we’ve also our own PWA – you can access our blog app below.
