Android Ported to the Nintendo Switch
Security vulnerabilities are an interesting flavor of bugs in software as they allow those with malicious intent to harm a user or business but they can also be used to expand the feature set of a given device. One of the more famous examples was during the early days of iOS where ‘jailbreaking’ would open up Apple’s phones to a new marketplace that could enable new functionality.
If you have a Nintendo Switch, specifically most devices sold before July of 2018, a variant of Android has been ported to the device; LineageOS 15.1 now works on the device. The port comes thanks to XDA members Langer Hans and Bylaws who ported the OS to run on the Switch via an SD card.
While Nintendo may not be a fan of this port and clearly this is only for those who like to tinker with hardware, it does open up the hardware to more experimentation. As of right now, it supports Nvidia Shield applications which means that you can play Half-Life and Portal with the hardware.
The process to get your device running Lineage OS does take a bit of work and you can find those details here. Even though this will likely remain a small project and few will actually run Android on their Switch, for those that do, Nintendo’s handheld has become a lot more functional.