Here on the XDA Portal, we bring you news---sometimes big news, sometimes small news. But we believe this is BIG, and rather exciting news for Android lovers (and iPh*ne converts)!

Jay Freeman, better known as Saurik, is a developer well-known for his work on Jailbroken iDevices and the creation of Cydia, Winterboard and Mobile substrate. He has recently “seen the light” and released Cydia substrate for Android. Designed to work with any recent version of Android (2.3 and later), Cydia Substrate is a platform for easier customisation of software, when the source code is not available. Although Mobile Substrate doesn't lead to any obvious visual changes on your phone, it paves the way to support for other exciting developments and applications through “substrate extensions,” which are installed in the same way as regular applications.

With Cydia Substrate, features previously only available through the installation of custom ROMs (until the advent of the Xposed Framework), will be as easy to install or remove as it would be to install or remove a regular app. This also opens the door to more generic tweaks heading our way, including the support of some already established iOS tweaks in the coming months. Cydia Substrate supports ARM and Intel CPUs already, and likely others. (MIPS, anyone?)

With the release of Cydia Substrate, Saurik also brings the much loved theme engine “Winterboard” to Android. This application requires both root permissions and Cydia Substrate, and opens many possibilities in line with theming. For example, it allows you to use CyanogenMod/TMobile Theme Engine themes on ROMs without this feature, activate several themes at once, and much more---all without having to install a whole new custom ROM. A more detailed article regarding Winterboard will follow.

It’s important to note that although Cydia Substrate has been thoroughly tested on different versions of Android and on many different devices, and although it includes a safety feature to disable modifications, Cydia Substrate is a work-in-progress. As such, caution is advised. And as always, backups should be taken. If you do have any issues when using Cydia Substrate, hold down the volume-up key on your device while booting the phone, and Safe Mode will be engaged, disabling any Cydia Substrate addons.

Developers or anybody interested in learning more about Cydia Substrate should go ahead and check out the documentation as well as its listing in the Google Play Store. Are you an iOS convert? Or have you been waiting on something like this to come along for some time? Let us know in the comments below.