Microsoft has announced testing of the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA), which is designed to run Android apps on Windows 11. The new feature is currently only available to Insiders in the US running Windows 11 releases in the Beta channel.
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They can now use Microsoft Store to find Android apps and games. The limited set of apps includes social media, productivity apps, creative tools, and other software. In collaboration with Amazon and apps devs, Microsoft brought 50 apps to test WSA on a variety of devices. Microsoft promises to expand the list of available apps in the coming months.
It is the next step for Microsoft to turn its Store into a Hub for any kind of apps, regardless of the technology they built with.
Microsoft promises that running Android apps and games on Windows 11 will be easy, with familiar and simple UX. Also, users will be able to run Windows and Android apps side-by-side, including multiple Android apps at once. The Snap window feature will also work for Android apps.
Other features, including Start menu pinning, mouse support, touch screen, will also work out of the box.
Obviously, Windows 11 will display notifications from Android apps in the notification center (Win + N). Android apps will be able to read and write into the clipboard to quickly share your data between Windows and Android apps.
Windows Subsystem for Android is available on all types of processors supported by Windows, including AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm. It relies on the Intel Bridge technology, which allows applications for the ARM architecture to run on devices with Intel and AMD chips.
Microsoft points that your device must meet the minimum system requirements for Windows 11 to get WSA working. In the future, Microsoft may lower the requirements for the Windows Subsystem for Android.
Developers interested in publishing their applications to the Amazon Appstore can access preview tools for debugging and testing applications on Windows. More information can be found in the official documentation from Amazon.
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So the million $ question: which are the killer Android apps besides games that are worth running on a Windows PC — for which better and native Windows equivalents don’t exist? While I have dozens of apps on my phone, I can’t think of any to run on Windows where I have a million PC-specific apps.
Also apps that require SIM or GPS won’t run, will they?