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

[Stahlmann]

It was a feature I was looking forward to when I upgraded to 11. But it was only after upgrading to 11 that I realised how little you could get out of it. It's not that it didn't work. It worked quite well in my experience. But it's just that for most of the Android apps that you'd want to use on a PC, there's a native PC app that has the same or more functionality. So this feature was pretty much a nothing burger overall.

 

So it's not something I'm going to miss.

[Forbidden Wafer]

11 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

So it's not something I'm going to miss.

It was supposed to be to WP, which lacked many important apps. It is a shame, since I've never seen a better phone OS than WP7.8

[Brooksie359]

9 hours ago, Issac Zachary said:

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.

 

Well that is one less program you have to worry about. I use kindle app to download my books so I can use a third party app so I can use it ok my eReader which doesn't support kindle library. 

[Issac Zachary]

1 hour ago, Brooksie359 said:

Well that is one less program you have to worry about. I use kindle app to download my books so I can use a third party app so I can use it ok my eReader which doesn't support kindle library. 

Although I will say that so far it does seem to have less functionality than the WSA version, albeit not a deal breaker. For starters the window resizing isn't as good as the WSA version. I also can't seem to find a way to playback Audible audiobooks as I have the same Kindle book open. 

 

There are other apps I uses, one that I even paid for. I guess I'll just go back to putting all my notes on paper for my lectures. If I need to put two devices on the podium then forget about it.

[SolarNova]

Didnt know it was a thing. thought if people wanted to run an android app they would just use BlueStacks lol.

[Sauron]

Could have been useful as a built-in development tool if done differently, as for actually using android apps though... probably not that useful. I've used bluestacks for a couple of things but realistically I could just as easily have used a native program, it's been more useful to test some open source apps before sideloading them straight into my device.

[GoStormPlays]

I don't know how I feel about this. On the one hand, I don't know anybody that even knew that it existed. But on the other hand, I'm sure there are some people out there that absolutely rely on this thing in many ways.

[Stahlmann]

19 hours ago, GoStormPlays said:

I don't know how I feel about this. On the one hand, I don't know anybody that even knew that it existed. But on the other hand, I'm sure there are some people out there that absolutely rely on this thing in many ways.

Bluestacks is still a thing, and has been the go-to solution for years. People who have been relying on android apps working on Windows have probably been using Bluestacks in the past and didn't even switch over yet, which is probably part of the reason why so few people used the native W11 supported implementation.

[Stahlmann]

1 hour ago, harris006 said:

Any proof of this?

Directly off the Microsoft site:

 

[source]

 

[PocketNerd]

This was dead in the water the moment M$ mentioned it would be connected to the Amazon App store. Surprised it lasted this long.

[GoStormPlays]

2 hours ago, PocketNerd said:

This was dead in the water the moment M$ mentioned it would be connected to the Amazon App store. Surprised it lasted this long.

can't wait until the amazon app store is available for ios

[PocketNerd]

1 hour ago, GoStormPlays said:

can't wait until the amazon app store is available for ios

Why? Purely out of curiosity 

[GoStormPlays]

5 hours ago, PocketNerd said:

Why? Purely out of curiosity 

I was joking

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

That reminds me... remember when Apple allowed iOS apps to run on macOS? Wonder when that'll get deprecated for the same reason. 

[Kisai]

3 hours ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

That reminds me... remember when Apple allowed iOS apps to run on macOS? Wonder when that'll get deprecated for the same reason. 

Likely never. You need to be able to develop iOS/iPadOS/tvOS on a Mac. Until that changes, nope.

 

When you develop, it's a native CPU binary (Intel or ARM). Since the CPU is basically the same now, this subsystem has to do less work now.

[WhitetailAni]

7 hours ago, Kisai said:

Likely never. You need to be able to develop iOS/iPadOS/tvOS on a Mac. Until that changes, nope.

 

When you develop, it's a native CPU binary (Intel or ARM). Since the CPU is basically the same now, this subsystem has to do less work now.

To be fair, that's slightly different - compiling for development builds for "iphonesimulator" instead of "iphoneos", "appletvsimulator" instead of "appletvos", and "watchsimulator" instead of "watchos". Simulator binaries/apps can't run on real hardware, you have to compile for the real hardware.

 

Less work isn't really being done, the Simulators are just really really stripped down versions of the OS that are compiled for x86_64 or arm64. No hardware emulation at all.

[TudorF]

I thought this was meant to create a seamless workflow with Microsoft apps on Android. Didn't Microsoft have that cool Duo gadget that was running Android.

At some point, it looked like Microsoft decided it won't run its own mobile platform anymore and would just insert its own applications into the Android ecosystem.

So having this run on desktop could have been a way to enable Windows to connect with mobile devices running Android and share data.

Also the more recent Windows versions have been seemingly moving towards a more mobile kind of interface.

Some things might be correlated here.

[Terrorgod]

On 3/6/2024 at 12:35 PM, Not_A_Spider said:

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:

 

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/

 

I think I was one of the few excited for this feature, and as another commentor stated, it was to half baked. Had to do so many workarounds to get things working. Several commands ran through terminal just to get a single app running outside of the amazon storefront. All the while, performance was very inneficient and pretty sure it partially killed my Surface Pro 7 as the device heated to all hell using a non 3D app.