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In 2020, switching from Intel to Apple silicon brought incredible performance-per-watt improvements to the Mac. It also enabled iPhone and iPad apps to natively run on macOS for the first time. A year later, Microsoft and Amazon teamed up to bring some Android apps to Windows with a similar approach.
The difference? Apple was rewarding developers and users with the culmination of its own technology to expand the app catalog on the Mac. Microsoft, on the other hand, well, no one is exactly sure what they were trying to achieve.
That’s because Microsoft has appeared to bury some pretty significant news in a support document. In short, Microsoft has shared today that will end Android app support on Windows 11 *checks notes* tomorrow.
Windows users have the rest of today to install Android apps from the Amazon Appstore — the limited alternative marketplace to Google’s Play Store. Starting tomorrow, the Amazon Appstore will no longer be available on Windows.
What happens if you already have Android apps installed on Windows? Mark your calendars! Microsoft promises one final year of support. Starting on March 5, 2025, support goes kaput:
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.
Rough for a feature that Microsoft said “signals new opportunity for developers and creators on Windows.” Apple certainly has its issues with the App Store on the Mac, but this particular instance is a clear example of the benefits of Apple owning the whole stack.
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