Just a few years ago – in 2021 – Windows 11 gained official support for Android apps thanks to a virtual machine maintained by Microsoft called Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA). With WSA, Windows 11 users could install and run almost the full range of Android apps, 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 access to the Amazon Appstore along with it.
Microsoft today was announced that it plans to stop maintaining WSA within the year. Windows 11 users who have installed the Amazon Appstore or Android apps will continue to have access to those apps until March 5, 2025 — but not after. And starting tomorrow, Amazon plans to block new users from downloading the Amazon Appstore from the Microsoft Store, Microsoft’s app store for Windows.
Image Credits: Microsoft
“Customers can continue to use Amazon Appstore apps they previously installed and will still be able to receive app updates [after March 6],” Amazon wrote in a blog post published today. “Developers will no longer be able to submit clean new apps targeting Windows 11 after March 5, 2024, but developers with an existing app can continue to submit app updates until the Amazon Appstore is completely discontinued on Windows 11.”
As Ars Technica’s Andrew Cunningham notes, the WSA, while being a convenient way to run Android apps on Windows. was limited from the start thanks to the inability to access the Google Play Store, the official Android app store — at least not without workarounds. The Amazon Appstore had a smaller selection, no doubt leading users in many cases to native Windows or web-based versions of apps they could have installed through WSA.
In other words, WSA usage was probably pretty low — at a time when Microsoft’s attention is clearly elsewhere, on GenAI and its various Windows incarnations.
Now, just because Microsoft’s terminal support for WSA doesn’t mean it will become impossible to run Android apps on Windows. There are several third-party alternatives, such as Waydroid, which provides support for Android apps via a Linux-based system container, and Bluestacks, an Android emulator for Windows and macOS.
And Microsoft’s commitment to bridging the gap between Android and Windows devices doesn’t seem to be wavering.
Just this week, Microsoft released a feature that lets Android users use their device’s camera as a webcam in Windows 11. Elsewhere, Microsoft maintains apps like Link to Windows, which lets Android (and iOS) users make and receive calls, reply to messages and check and dismiss notifications from a Windows PC.
