just three years after announcing they were bringing Android apps to Windows 11 (via the Amazon App Store), they have now u-turned and said they will be ending support for their Windows Subsystem for Windows from March 2025.
In a support article on Microsoft Learn, they said “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“.
Writing was on the wall
Is this a strange move? Personally no. Even though Microsoft has been continually updating the Windows Subsystem for Android since it first launched, usage was low despite it being a big promotional item to drive value of Windows as a single OS for home and work. Microsoft had initially positioned Android apps on Windows 11 as a way to compete/align with Apple and their move to support the running of iOS apps on macOS. The main draw back of Microsoft’s approach was that their partnership with Amazon did not provide official access to Google’s Play Store, making it difficult for consumers to access download the more popular Android apps on Windows. Personally, I think this is the main reason Microsoft might be retiring support for Android Apps on Windows.
I had used it a handful of times, but in most cases defaulted to Web Apps or the Windows native app experience. I’m not really one to play loads of Android games so it wasn’t really a thing I envisaged using Windows 11 for.
It could have been better.
I think if Microsoft has managed to leverage this system using the Google Play Store rather than Amazon store, it could have been a different story. Selfishly, it is not a service I will miss, but it was a good way to enable people to access a wider set of apps not available for Windows 11 devices.
Microsoft need to spend more time on getting more developers to write apps for Windows. Its an age old problem Microsoft have experienced and whilst the best it is ever been, Windows is still not a default destination for apps with many apps being web apps for more common social media and gaming apps outside of the big hitting apps and those supported in Xbox and Windows Games.