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Reactions to yesterday’s iOS 7 reveal were largely positive, but one current of criticism kept flowing: that Apple may have relied a little too hard on copying other operating systems—in particular, Google’s Android (though the stark flatness of Windows Phone 8 got cited, too).

Let's leave aside the question of intention; certainly some iOS elements appear to be influenced by other mobile operating systems, which has been a natural part of OS design for decades. What the new iOS design does show is validation for the direction in which Android and Windows Phone 8 have been moving recently. Now, the three top mobile operating systems favor clean, simplified, visual interfaces.

Apple's choices may also come as a validation for Android engineers, who have had to deal with the legions of OEM interface layovers and fragmentation issues that plague the OS and undermine what they have attempted to standardize. For many—including me—stock Android is a favorite, and it appears that might be true at Apple, too. When you put both Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and iOS 7 side-by-side, the resemblance can be uncanny. Let's take a look.

Hello flatness, my old friend

iOS 7's minimalist interface is certainly good-looking, but I couldn't help but see the Android similarities as I was watching Apple's WWDC keynote.

Apple dialed down its lock screen to a very simple “slide to unlock” variant that mirrors what Android has going on with Jelly Bean. You can check on your battery life up in the right-hand corner, which appears styled like Android's, and the date and time are also similarly placed, with a similar font.

The multitasking screen also seems to take a few cues from Android. There are only minor differences between the two: the icon placement and the fact that the preview screens are horizontal rather than vertical.

Apple has always had this kind of layout for its music player buttons, but now that it has renovated it in the new "flat" design, it looks a lot more like Google Music.

Settings shades

Apple’s new Control Center is a panel that you can swipe up from the bottom of the screen to access many quick settings like airplane mode, screen brightness, and Bluetooth. You can also select from a listing of commonly used apps. This is much more user-friendly than the ordeal accessing the settings used to be—pausing whatever you're doing by double tapping the home button and then navigating to the settings—and it’s a lot like the expanded settings panel that Google introduced in Jelly Bean.

And if we’re bringing up previous transgressions, Apple introduced its Notifications shade long after Google had implemented something similar into Android.

Full-screen mobile browsing

There’s a reason we pay such close attention to the Chrome Beta browser for Android—that’s where Google tries out its features. Earlier this year, Google showed its users that it was going to bring full-screen browsing to the mobile version of Chrome, which it eventually did with the latest update. Apple also announced yesterday that it would implement full-screen browsing in mobile Safari.

I'm not sure how Apple does its full-screen browsing since I haven't gotten to use iOS 7 myself, but Google Chrome only does so once you start scrolling down; otherwise, the omnibar and refresh button remain in place.

The similarities don't stop there—especially if we start talking about actual application features. iOS 7 remains a beta product, and some of this may change; even if it does, though, Android users might feel a little déjà vu next time they borrow an iPhone.