When Windows 11 was launched by Microsoft 2 years ago, it came with support for Android apps. That meant that a user could interact with an Android app on their Windows laptop if it had gone through the necessary optimization and checks.
The only catch was that the app needed to be published through the Amazon Appstore. The Amazon Appstore houses Android apps that can be downloaded and installed on Amazon’s own devices which run an Android fork, Fire OS, as well as any other compatible Android device (including the one you are using to read this piece).
This was because Microsoft hadn’t been able to hammer a deal with Google (which has Android apps running on Chrome OS, its own desktop effort and Fuschia OS, an open-source operating system it has developed). A partnership with Amazon was a good way of working around that limitation.
Microsoft’s latest communication after its Build developer conference keynote where it revealed ambitious plans to have as many parts of its popular desktop OS to be powered by AI smarts as possible, shows that it is allowing more developers of Android apps to submit their apps for review and publication for use on Windows 11.
The catch here is that the said developers need to be having accounts on the Amazon Appstore.
“Any developer with an Amazon Appstore Developer account can now submit their apps for distribution on Windows 11 devices,” Microsoft says in the communication.
“We are focused on building an open store that is ready for the new AI era, and to provide developers with new tools like Microsoft Store Ads to reach even more customers.”
Back in 2021 when Microsoft announced the coming of Android apps to Windows, it had just 50 apps to show how that looks like. With over 50,000 Android apps dotting the Amazon Appstore, this recent move allows Windows 11 users access to tens of thousands of Android apps.
Of course, besides having accounts on the Amazon Appstore, developers will have to optimize their apps for desktop usage. For instance, ensuring that they can resize to take up more screen real estate or less, depending on user preferences, being able to play nice with touch screens on desktop and laptop computers as well as mouse and physical keyboard input in their various forms, shapes and sizes to guarantee a desirable user experience.
Android apps are able to run on Windows computers because of the Windows Subsystem for Android (just recently updated to support Android 13), allowing the Windows operating system to properly mimick everything that’s offered in the traditional environment where an Android app would run on an Android device running a version of the Android OS.
One needs to have the latest version of Windows (11) installed on their computer, have the Amazon Appstore installed as well and make sure that their computer has 8GB RAM installed and runs on a 64-bit processor architecture in order to be able to use Android apps on Windows.
