Microsoft will pull the plug on support for Google Android apps in Windows 11, by 2025, as per a support document that says:
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.
The WSA popped up around three years ago, in October 2021, for Windows 11. Users could install and run Android apps on their devices through the technology, which is based on Intel's Bridge compiler.
There was quite a bit of noise made about WSA at the time. Write once, run everywhere is something of a holy grail for software vendors. Besides, Apple was gearing up to run apps for the iOS and iPadOS mobile operating systems on macOS and there are lots of great Android games for example out there which are nice to have on Windows 11.
However, the Android apps were limited to ones found in the Amazon Appstore, which uses Amazon Coins for in-app and other purchases.
You can side-load Google Play apps on Windows 11 with lots of effort; however, if the apps require Google services like Maps, they won't work.
Microsoft has not said why it is killing off WSA. Did they fall out with Google, are there some technical reasons that makes it difficult to run Android apps on WSA? Not enough people using it?
If you use WSA to run Android apps on Windows 11, let us know which ones in the comments.
Update: it was a money decision by Microsoft.
Store revenue pays the bills and salaries of the wsa team. WSL acrues to azure and vs so has a profit center. WSA without a store is awesome but doesn't help windows financially
— Andrew Clinick (@andrewclinick) March 5, 2024
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