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It was only a few years ago — in 2021 — that Windows 11 gain prescribed documentation for Android apps thanks to a Microsoft - maintainedVMcalled the Windows Subsystem for Android ( WSA ) . With the WSA , Windows 11 exploiter could install and run nearly the full range of apps for Android , optionally through Amazon ’s Android marketplace — the Amazon Appstore — thanks to an Amazon - Microsoft deal .
Now Windows 11 is losing official Android app support — and approach to the Amazon Appstore along with it .
Microsoft todayannouncedthat it plans to stop maintaining the WSA within the class . Windows 11 user who ’ve add the Amazon Appstore or Android apps will continue to have accession to those apps through March 5 , 2025 — but not after . And starting tomorrow , Amazon plans to prevent young user from downloading the Amazon Appstore from the Microsoft Store , Microsoft ’s app entrepot for Windows .
“ customer may carry on using Amazon Appstore apps that they previously installed and will still be able to receive app updates [ after March 6 ] , ” Amazon write in a blog postpublishedtoday . “ developer will no longer be able to submit net fresh apps targeting Windows 11 after March 5 , 2024 , but developer with an be app can continue to give in app updates until Amazon Appstore on Windows 11 is to the full discontinued . ”
As Ars Technica ’s Andrew Cunninghamnotes , the WSA , while a convenient way to course Android apps on Windows , was limited from the start thanks to its unfitness to enter the Google Play Store , the prescribed Android app store — at least not without workarounds . The Amazon Appstore had a pocket-sized survival of the fittest , doubtless driving users in many cases to aboriginal Windows or entanglement - based versions of apps they could ’ve installed through the WSA .
In other words , WSA utilization was plausibly pretty low — at a metre when Microsoft ’s attention is very obviouslyelsewhere , such as on productive AI and its various avatar in Windows .
Now , just because Microsoft is ending support for the WSA does n’t intend it ’ll become impossible to run Android apps on Windows . A number of third - political party alternatives subsist , including Waydroid , which provides accompaniment for Android apps via Linux - based system container , and BlueStacks , an Android ape for Windows and macOS .
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And Microsoft ’s dedication to bridging the gap between Android and Windows devices does n’t appear to be wavering .
Just this hebdomad , Microsoft plunge a feature that allows Android users to use their twist ’s camera as a webcam on Windows 11 . Elsewhere , Microsoft maintain apps like Link to Windows , which allow Android ( and iOS ) user make and take call , reply to textual matter and suss out and dismiss notification from a Windows PC .
