Microsoft is bringing Android app support to Windows 11

Today, Microsoft has officially unveiled the new version of Windows: Windows 11. At the event, Microsoft detailed a number of visual and productivity changes coming to the desktop operating system. Towards the end of the event, Microsoft had a surprise announcement in store: the company is bringing Android apps to Windows 11, accessible through the Microsoft Store via a partnership with the Amazon App Store.

Few technical details were shared regarding the Android app integration during the event. Apps seem to run in their own container and can be pinned to the taskbar, resized, snapped, and are generally treated as if they were native Windows apps that are running on your computer. Microsoft says this integration is powered by Intel Bridge technology, but beyond that it’s not clear what the specific hardware requirements are.

Our only concern with this news is that the number of apps available through Amazon’s App Store pales in comparison to the number available through Google’s Play Store. Furthermore, it’s unlikely that Windows 11 will ship with Google Mobile Services on board, so we don’t know if certain apps will misbehave on the OS owing to the lack of Google Play Services.

The arrival of Android apps on Windows 11 is clearly aimed at taking on Apple’s recent integration of iOS and iPadOS apps in macOS. The latter was made possible thanks to the new Macs switching to an ARM-based processor — Apple’s M1 silicon — while the former likely builds upon the work Microsoft has done to integrate Linux into Windows.

We’re excited by this announcement and will be digging into the Android apps integration whenever Microsoft releases the first builds of Windows 11 next week.

The post Microsoft is bringing Android app support to Windows 11 appeared first on xda-developers.

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