Microsoft is removing the ability for Windows 11 to run Android apps

[Not_A_Spider]

Summary

On March 5th, 2025, the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) will be depreciated. The feature allowed for installation and running of Android apps from the Amazon app store, which itself was downloadable from the Microsoft store. Some users did figure out how to install the Google Play Store into the WSA system, it's unknown if this will still function, but it was already a clunky workaround to begin with. Supposedly it's being removed because not enough people use it. Those who have apps downloaded will be able to continue to use them past March 5th, but without developer or Microsoft support.

 

Quotes

From the Microsoft support page:

Quote

Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA). As a result, the Amazon Appstore on Windows and all applications and games dependent on WSA will no longer be supported beginning March 5, 2025. Until then, technical support will remain available to customers.

Customers that have installed the Amazon Appstore or Android apps prior to March 5, 2024, will continue to have access to those apps through the deprecation date of March 5, 2025. Please reach out to our support team for further questions at support.microsoft.com. We are grateful for the support of our developer community and remain committed to listening to feedback as we evolve experiences.

 

My thoughts

I'm almost positive this feature was only added as a response to Apple silicon being able to run iOS apps natively on macOS, but apparently nobody really cares. Makes me wonder how many people use that feature on Mac.

Ars Technica notes that most of the Android apps 'worth downloading' are just mobile versions of web UIs, ala Netflix etc, and I'm inclined to agree. The only thing I can see anyone use this for is mobile only games.

 

Sources

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/android/wsa/

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/03/rip-to-the-windows-subsystem-for-android-which-goes-away-in-2025/

 

[Kid.Lazer]

"Here's a feature that might be useful, but we half-baked it so it's kinda pointless."

*nobody uses it because it's pointless*

"We're removing this feature that nobody likes, though we're not really sure why."

[GuiltySpark_]

This news is where i'm learning this was a thing in the first place. Or I just forgot because I don't care. 

[Helpful Tech Witch]

Damn. That sucks.
Im pretty sure that the WSA was a successor to the cancled windows phone Project Astoria,  both woulda been cool if they wernt halfbaked or shit

[Helpful Tech Witch]

Just now, GuiltySpark_ said:

This news is where i'm learning this was a thing in the first place. Or I just forgot because I don't care. 

wsa was one of the headline featured for win11 at the time of release

 

[porina]

Anyone know if Google Play Games Beta on PC uses WSL or not? I think they use their own emulator but not sure. So on that note, if people really wanted to run Android apps or whatever, they can still run other emulators. A problem for some is that the Amazon store version is separate from the Google Play environment, so I think that would in itself limit adoption.

[MiszS]

Too bad i'm using linux (ik no one asked)

[Helpful Tech Witch]

9 minutes ago, porina said:

Anyone know if Google Play Games Beta on PC uses WSL or not? I think they use their own emulator but not sure. So on that note, if people really wanted to run Android apps or whatever, they can still run other emulators. A problem for some is that the Amazon store version is separate from the Google Play environment, so I think that would in itself limit adoption.

its thier own, since wsl never used google play

[Kisai]

40 minutes ago, Not_A_Spider said:

 

 

My thoughts

I'm almost positive this feature was only added as a response to Apple silicon being able to run iOS apps natively on macOS, but apparently nobody really cares. Makes me wonder how many people use that feature on Mac.

Ars Technica notes that most of the Android apps 'worth downloading' are just mobile versions of web UIs, ala Netflix etc, and I'm inclined to agree. The only thing I can see anyone use this for is mobile only games.

 

 

Cause not very many Android apps are little more than web apps that use the system webview, which you can do natively on Windows, just find the html file the app uses and launch it in Edge.

 

Mobile games have MEmu/Bluestacks if you're really wanting to play them, but really most mobile games weren't going to run on the "android" subsystem anyway. That still requires Intel HAXM to translate ARM.

[creat0r]

55 minutes ago, Not_A_Spider said:

Makes me wonder how many people use that feature on Mac.

I do. It's very useful for me. Examples: the iOS gaming library is massive compared to macOS (I play GTA: San Andreas this way). Some stock trading apps I use have much better UI in their iOS app than their desktop website. Some apps that takes forever to render on iPhone (large LiDAR 3D-scans, DeepFake apps etc.) run 10 times as fast on my MBP 16" M Max.

 

That being said, I can understand why this might not be as important to Windows users since Windows already has much better application support compared to macOS.

[RejZoR]

Wasn't this whole thing a big deal few years ago, but the whole implementation was so stupid and hard to use no one used it? Like, if you could easily install any app from any app market, people would use it. But I'm rather technical user and apart from knowing this subsystem was available, I've never even tried it because it was so clumsy and overcomplicated.

[Lightwreather]

Well, That feature lasted less than a typical google project /s

[Dabombinable]

Considering that I've never been even able to use WSA in Australia, because it wasn't available over here. So I forgot about it (like many others probably have), and next thing I hear its being removed because "no one used it". People wanted to use it, but it was handled so poorly that people couldn't and just forgot it even existed.

Microsoft doing a Google.

[Lunar River]

as someone who tried WSA...bluestacks was superior in every single way that i completely forgot WSA was even still a thing.

[Issac Zachary]

I knew I had put my thread in the wrong category:

 

 

I use WSA for a couple of apps that are not just web interfaces, and I have the need to use them without internet (for an example, Kindle on web is not an option for me).

 

I guess I'll have to back to using Bluestacks, even though I don't really like it due to all the advertising. I had bought an Android Emulator many years ago that was pretty good. I can't remember what it is, but soon after I had paid some good money for it it lost support.

 

Either Bluestacks or I'll just have to make sure my phone is charged up and figure out how to tape it to the side of my Surface when I need to see both Windows and Android apps at the same time.

 

This stinks and is just another feature I came to love and find a lot of usefulness only for it to be pulled out from under me. Why should I care about any feature any tech company offers anymore?

[Issac Zachary]

I just downloaded Bluestacks and remembered another thing I dislike about it: the ability to resize and reshape a particular app. This is going to make studying harder to do with only a Windows device, especially with a typical or small screen, like on my Surface Go 2, since the 16:9 Blue Stacks window takes up way to much screen real estate.

 

Oh well, I guess I'll go back to Windows 10. This was the only feature that got me to switch to much more inferior Windows 11.

[TrigrH]

This was the only feature windows 11 had that I felt like I was missing out on is now gone.

[TetraSky]

I tried it before. 

It barely worked.

The majority of the apps I tried installing with APKs didn't work at all. Only a handful did.

 

May as well use a proper emulator at that point... At least those works.

[Brooksie359]

5 hours ago, Issac Zachary said:

I knew I had put my thread in the wrong category:

 

 

I use WSA for a couple of apps that are not just web interfaces, and I have the need to use them without internet (for an example, Kindle on web is not an option for me).

 

I guess I'll have to back to using Bluestacks, even though I don't really like it due to all the advertising. I had bought an Android Emulator many years ago that was pretty good. I can't remember what it is, but soon after I had paid some good money for it it lost support.

 

Either Bluestacks or I'll just have to make sure my phone is charged up and figure out how to tape it to the side of my Surface when I need to see both Windows and Android apps at the same time.

 

This stinks and is just another feature I came to love and find a lot of usefulness only for it to be pulled out from under me. Why should I care about any feature any tech company offers anymore?

You do know they have a windows version of the kindle app right? Not sure why you would need to get the android one as you can read stuff offline with the windows version just fine. 

[Issac Zachary]

1 hour ago, Brooksie359 said:

You do know they have a windows version of the kindle app right? Not sure why you would need to get the android one as you can read stuff offline with the windows version just fine. 

What are you talking about? As far as I understand the Windows version of Kindle IS the WSA version that. And if you don't have it already, it is no longer downloadable and will be killed in 2025 when WSA is killed.

 

I stand corrected. However, it was just an example, as I do use a couple other Android apps on Windows that I'm pretty sure don't have an x86 version.

 

But even if they do, it doesn't inspire me to want to try out anything new like the new Bing Chat GPT-4 or whatever it's called. If I try it, in a year or two they will kill it or paywall it. That's how these things work.

 

[Mihle]

I would have used it for one or two apps, if it had been available in my country and easy to use with Google Play Store, or the apps in question was available directly in Microsoft store. But none of those were the case so I never ended up using it.

[Forbidden Wafer]

Was this even a thing? I thought they had killed it completely when they took it from WP10 and went with WSL instead.

[porina]

I just realised I got WSA and WSL mixed up earlier. I still hope that Google Play Games beta can become a more generic Android emulator without resorting to the others. I have tried emulators in the past by they've always been a bit flaky and performance wasn't great, even with a solid PC behind it. Also some emulators have done shady things so it doesn't help.

[Arokhantos]

WSA never launcher here having android apps would be pretty useful to me but it never launched here which sucks

[Doobeedoo]

Oh no, so anyway...