It’s true that Android apps are finally coming to Windows. They’ll be fully integrated into the next version of the OS, Windows 11. You’ll be able to discover and search for apps in a new Microsoft Store. And the apps will live right alongside your Windows apps in your Start menu or integrated into the new taskbar.
The feature is officially called the “Windows Subsystem for Android,” which should tell you a lot about how it works. Windows currently has a “Windows Subsystem for Linux” (WSL), which uses a subset of the Hyper-V functionality to run Linux apps on a real Linux kernel alongside your Windows apps. (Hyper-V lets a second guest OS access the bare metal hardware instead of running on top of the host OS with less access to resources.) Real Android phones use the Linux kernel, and Microsoft is building an Android framework on top of WSL for the Windows Subsystem for Android. It sounds like we’re essentially getting x86 Android running on Hyper-V.
Android apps under Windows should feel just like native Windows apps, with a top-level window, taskbar entry, and the ability to be pinned to the start menu. During its presentation, Microsoft said, “Behind the scenes, we actually create a proxy native app that handles the bridge between the Android app model and the Windows app model.” Presumably, that means the system will provide things like a start menu shortcut, icons, entries in the app uninstall lists, and other minor Windows wrappings that will make the app feel native.
Microsoft is trying to do this with as little emulation as possible—maybe even no emulation, depending on your computer and app availability. Both Windows and Android run on x86 and Arm architectures, with Android favoring Arm and Windows favoring x86. If you’re running Windows on Arm and want to run an Arm Android app, things will work out great. If you’re on x86 Windows, Microsoft will try to ship you an x86 version of the Android app you want. But if the only thing available is an Arm app, “Intel Bridge Technology” is here to help by translating that Arm code into something an x86 CPU can run. Microsoft helpfully pointed out that this feature will also work on AMD CPUs.
Microsoft Engineer Miguel de Icaza confirmed that Windows 11 will support sideloading for those who don’t want to mess with any of this Amazon stuff. You should immediately have options for open source stores like F-Droid and the ability to load up on APKMirror apps. It will probably be only a matter of time before someone gets the entire Google Play Store working.
X86 apps are prevalent on Google Play thanks to years of defaults and pushes for additional architecture support. Is x86 prevalent on the Amazon App Store, though? You can sideload the Amazon App Store on any Android device, but the Echo Fire devices that exclusively use Amazon have all been Arm. Many apps are universal and run on all architectures, so… maybe.
It would have been nice if Microsoft pulled a Surface Duo and teamed up with Google to get the actual Play Store in Windows 11. The problem with using Android outside of the Play Store is that you lose access to the Google Play Services APIs for things like push notifications. Amazon has been building its own replacement APIs and cloud services for years for Fire OS, and if you can’t have Google Play, it’s the next best thing.
