Microsoft has unceremoniously announced it is ending official support for Android apps on Windows 11 and has already started pulling the plug.
The Amazon Appstore, the only officially supported avenue for downloading Android apps on Windows devices, is no longer available for download from the Microsoft Store. Thankfully, currently installed Android apps will still function and, depending on the developer, can still receive updates until the underlying system is deprecated on 5 March 2024.
If you’re one of the few who regularly use Android apps on Windows, it’s time to look for alternatives.
Microsoft kills WSA
When Microsoft launched Windows 11 in October 2021, one of the biggest new features it touted was official support for Android apps. This support came from a Windows 11 feature called the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA). It used built-in virtualisation to allow apps developed for the Android operating system to run on Windows machines without the need for an Android virtual machine or third-party software.
Well, third-party software was still involved — you needed to download Amazon’s Appstore via the Microsoft Store to download and use Android apps, officially. This ‘exclusive’ partnership between Microsoft and Amazon meant that WSA was kneecapped from the start, unable to access the far broader Android app offerings in Google’s Play Store.
Amazon’s Appstore offers a paltry selection of apps, which didn’t make the switch for users using Android emulators like BlueStacks or LDPlayer seem very appealing. There were, of course, workarounds — it didn’t take people long to figure out how to sideload the Google Play Store into WSA. But why bother with a workaround like that when you could just keep using an emulator or a web-based version of the app?