Nokia may have tried to steer clear of Android look and feel with its redesign windows tile-like interface in Nokia X, but it was always a questions of when and not if hackers will tinker around to root the device and run native Android apps. That time has come within a matter of days as an XDA-developers member has managed to hack his Nokia X to run Google Play and other apps.
The new Android-powered Nokia X was only unveiled at the start of this week, but already the enterprising folks at XDA-Developers have worked out how to get the full range of Google apps and services running on the device. User Kashamalaga was able to get the Google Now launcher and the Google Play store running on the Nokia X he received at Mobile World Congress. As we mentioned in our hands-on review of the Nokia X, while the phone uses Android as its foundation, most of the code has been built from the ground up by Nokia itself. This means a brand new handset will only be able to run apps from the Nokia Store, missing out on the standard Gmail, Google Maps and Google Hangouts apps that most Android users are familiar with.