So, we already know that in Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 11 release, users of the new operating system will be able to easily download and install the same Android applications they are accustomed to on their mobile devices, on their Windows-powered desktop computers.
How so? Well, as we have already highlighted, Microsoft is partnering with Intel and Amazon to make it all possible.
Amazon is offering access to its Amazon Appstore, which is home to about half a million Android apps. Intel, on the other hand, is providing the technology that will make it necessary to be able to run such mobile applications on devices with its x86 architecture microprocessors (what we simply call processors) and render them as intended on displays and monitors without any need to lift a finger on the part of the user.
Now, as some would know, there is an important cog in the wheel when it comes to Android: Google.
Microsoft isn’t partnering with Google, the Android platform’s main custodian, in its mission to bring Android apps to Windows in Windows 11. Amazon’s Appstore is one of the many third-party app stores and repositories out there that users can turn to in order to access apps. In Amazon’s case, it is where users of its Android-powered Fire tablets get their apps and games. This is because those devices are not Google Play-certified as they run a heavily modified Android build (Fire OS) and, therefore, cannot access apps and games from the Google Play Store, where many Android users normally do.
With Google out of the picture, as things stand, the Amazon Appstore is the only place where users can expect to download and install any Android application they can find, from.
Obviously, there will be a need for more.
That need, according to a Microsoft engineer on Twitter, will be satisfied through a process that has for ages been classified as risky to ordinary users because of the security risks involved (no longer much of a going concern) but also, for those in the know, one that has been one of the reasons to embrace Android even more: sideloading.
Windows 11 users may be able to port over any apps they wish to have on their desktop computing machines by simply downloading them from wherever they desire and installing them on their computer in a “click and play” manner, just as they would any software not gotten through official sources like the Windows Store where the said Android apps from the Amazon Appstore will be delivered.
