Microsoft is pulling the plug on Android apps for Windows. The corporate stated it’s ending assist for Home windows Subsystem for Android (WSA), the underlying element behind the Amazon Appstore (and different Android apps) in Home windows 11. Microsoft advised Engadget it was responding to “evolving buyer wants.”
Microsoft first stated in 2021 that Home windows 11 would have the ability to run Android apps. When it arrived the following year, customers may set up the Amazon Appstore, and a few particular person Android apps have been discovered within the Microsoft Retailer. The rollout was considered as a solution to the twin threats of Android apps on Chromebooks and iOS apps on Apple Silicon Macs.
A Microsoft spokesperson clarified to Engadget why it’s now terminating the function. “As a part of our dedication to assembly evolving buyer wants, we periodically replace our product choices,” they stated. “This entails introducing new technical improvements and retiring merchandise. Microsoft stays devoted to an open platform and ecosystem, and we look ahead to persevering with to deliver the very best experiences and apps to Home windows.”
With Microsoft blazing full-tilt into all things AI, it could now see its previous makes an attempt at making Home windows a dramatically higher touch-focused platform as now not definitely worth the sources. One other chance, as The Verge speculates, is that folks attempting to find Android apps on Home windows anticipated the complete Google Play Store expertise — not Amazon’s variant, which has an inferior general choice.
Microsoft says clients who put in the Amazon Appstore (or different apps and video games utilizing WSA) on their Home windows 11 machines earlier than Tuesday can maintain utilizing them till March 5, 2025. In the meantime, Amazon clarified that its Appstore and affiliate apps will now not be discoverable within the Microsoft Retailer starting on Wednesday. As well as, builders can now not submit new apps for the Amazon Appstore on Home windows, however these with current ones can proceed to submit updates for them till this time subsequent 12 months.
As for what’s subsequent for Microsoft, the corporate is rumored to launch new Floor gadgets on March 21. The Floor Professional 10 and Floor Laptop computer 6 are anticipated, with the corporate presumably marketing them as its first AI PCs.
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