The Google Play Store enjoys so much dominance in the mobile market that a casual user can be forgiven to think it is the only place in the Android world where one can download apps that have gone through proper checks to determine their functionality and security. The Amazon Appstore is one quality alternative where users can download these applications and still get the same support one gets from the Google Play Store.
Following the release of Android 12, early adopters were left scratching their heads after they found out the Amazon Appstore was not working on their devices. Users in various forums reported that not only did the Amazon Appstore itself not work, the apps and games they had installed from the Appstore also failed to launch.
The company had already started dealing with customer complaints in Amazon’s digital and device forums but failed to go into details as to where the problem was arising from. The only information released at the time to the public was that its technical team was still investigating the issue.
Amazon, trying to keep the issue under wraps and prevent it from being covered by the media, failed terribly after Liliputing put out an article detailing the difficulties, which was then subsequently picked out by other tech outlets. The story getting widely circulated forced Amazon to publicly comment on the matter.
Their statement said that the company is working on a fix that impacted “app performance and launches” that had affected the “small number of Amazon Appstore users that have upgraded to Android 12.” Amazon also noted in their statement that the issue did not impact Amazon Fire TV devices or Amazon Fire tablets.
On Friday, the 17th of Dec, Amazon said a fix had gone live, but still failed to detail what exactly had gone wrong and how the issue had been addressed to prevent it from reoccurring when users inevitably upgrade to the next iteration of Android that will replace Android 12.
“We have released a fix for an issue impacting app launches for Amazon Appstore customers that have upgraded to Android 12 on their mobile devices,” a company spokesperson said, in a statement shared with media. “We are contacting customers with steps to update their Appstore experience. We are sorry for any disruption this has caused,” they added.
The company’s failure to immediately fix the issue that inconvenienced its customers for multiple weeks only highlights just how little traction its Appstore has on Android devices. Most Android users simply do not see any need to buy apps and games outside Google Play.
Speculation is already rife within the Android community as to what exactly caused the compatibility problems. One plausible explanation is that the built-in DRM mechanism found in the Amazon Appstore did not play nice with Android 12. Further adding supporting evidence to this theory, a user discovered that decompiling the Android app package file (APK) then commenting out the lines related to the DRM in combination with other technical steps made the apps run without crashing.
