The idea of allowing users to install Android apps within Windows 11 was fantastic. Mostly because the Windows app store just never took off in the same way. Where Android’s app market was absolutely massive.
Microsoft accomplished this by pairing Amazon’s Appstore (available in the Windows app store) with Windows 11’s Subsystem for Android. It essentially allowed Windows users to install and run Android apps within a VM-like environment. The only catch was Amazon’s app store was never really as big as Google’s. So it might never have been adopted by the majority of Windows users.
The company is bringing an end to it next year. The EOL (end of life) will be March 5th, 2025. Amazon has already stopped taking Windows 11-themed submissions to its app store as of yesterday.
Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android™? (WSA). As a result, the Amazon Appstore on Windows and all applications and games dependent on WSA will no longer be supported beginning March 5, 2025. Until then, technical support will remain available to customers.
Customers that have installed the Amazon Appstore or Android apps prior to March 5, 2024, will continue to have access to those apps through the deprecation date of March 5, 2025. Please reach out to our support team for further questions at support.microsoft.com. We are grateful for the support of our developer community and remain committed to listening to feedback as we evolve experiences.
Both companies have been reaching out to users to let them know of the new changes. Amazon has reached out directly via email and Microsoft via its announcement here.
It really is too bad to see it go. Microsoft is well known for nixing things quickly if it feels like it isn’t living up to its expectations when it comes to how many people are using something (or randomly nixing things for unknown reasons). It was a great idea, but it just wasn’t implemented as well as it could have.
1 Comment
I would have used it if it was the Play Store and not Amazon’s