Here's how Android apps work on Windows 11:

Little robot? how do we get there

Ron Amadeo
Android apps will be first-class citizens on Windows 11. Some of these codes are Android and I can’t even tell.
Android TikTok app. You will see a window title bar with a back button and taskbar icon.
The Microsoft Store advertises Android apps on your PC.
For some reason, the Android App Store is powered by Amazon.
This is a list of apps from TikTok. There is no “Install” button, just one that looks like it takes you to another Amazon App Store app.

Microsoft Windows 11 announcement I was surprised to hear that the upcoming operating system will run Android apps alongside Windows apps. Unfortunately, keywords are light on details. Would you like to use this simulation app? Will legacy Linux support for Windows be included? I got an answer right after the opening speech. thank you for following me. Developer Talk It got into some details.

This feature is officially called the “Windows Subsystem for Android” and it says a lot about how it works. Windows currently has a “Windows Subsystem for Linux” (WSL) that uses a subset of Hyper-V features to run Linux applications on the physical Linux kernel along with Windows applications. (Hyper-V allows the second guest OS to access bare metal hardware rather than running on top of the host OS with less access to resources.) Real Android phones use the Linux kernel, and Microsoft has built a framework for Android. Windows Subsystem for Android. By default, Hyper-V appears to be running x86 Android.

Android apps on Windows should resemble native Windows apps with the ability to pin to top-level windows, taskbar items, and the Start menu. “Behind the scenes, we are already building a native proxy application that handles the bridge between the Android application model and the Windows application model,” Microsoft said in its presentation. This probably means that the system provides things like start menu shortcuts, icons, uninstall menu items for apps, and other Windows trivialities that make apps look original.

Microsoft wants to do this with as little emulation as possible without emulation, depending on computer and application availability. Both Windows and Android run on x86 and Arm architecture, Android Arm is preferred and Windows x86 is preferred. If you are running Windows on Arm and want to run Arm Android apps, everything works fine. If you are using x86 Windows, Microsoft will try to provide the x86 version of the Android app you want. But if the only thing you can use is the Arm app, Intel Bridge. To help translate the Arm code into something that can run on x86 CPUs, Microsoft has made it clear that this feature will also work on AMD CPUs.

Microsoft’s approach is similar to the way Android apps are built and run on many other operating systems. Support for Android apps for Chrome OS download is perhaps the most striking example. Chrome OS actually runs the Linux kernel and compiles the Android framework as a container for running applications. If you have an x86 Chromebook, Chrome OS uses Arm-to-x86 Android’s built-in binary translation. If you’re on a desktop Linux operating system, Unbox does the same thing – it loads the Android framework on top of Linux. You can also play Anbox on WSL today.

This is probably the last experience many have with Intel’s Android x86 platform. For an x86 phone running the Atom 2012, you’ll get the same horrible hardware as the old Asus Zenfone line. X86 Android has come a long way since then. The release of Android Chrome OS in 2016 certainly helped the operating system a lot. Even before the 2016 release, Google had been pushing Arm to increase support for x86 apps, and Google’s development tools defaulted to streaming Arm and x86 binaries for a while. In 2016, Google estimated that about 25% of Play Store apps do not support x86 and require Arm subtitles. Today, thanks to Chrome OS, we have a larger x86 customer base, so this number will be more appropriate.

Amazon, Sideloading, and the Non-Google Play Ecosystem

Zoom / The Android app appears to be listed in the Microsoft Store, but it takes me to the Amazon App Store to install it.

Microsoft / Ron Amadeo

Microsoft No Using the Google Play ecosystem on Windows. Microsoft is also partnering with Amazon, not building its own Android ecosystem, but instead using the same Amazon App Store found on Fire OS devices. However, the Amazon Mod press release doesn’t offer much other than the statement that more details will be revealed later.

I haven’t seen a full Android app install on Windows 11 yet, so it’s not clear how this all works. Microsoft has released several screenshots showing the Microsoft Store advertising the Amazon App Store Android app. The Amazon App Catalog appears to be listed on the Microsoft Store with reviews, screenshots, and descriptions, but it doesn’t appear that the Microsoft Store can actually install Android apps. The key is located on the install button. For Windows applications, it will simply say “Get” to indicate that the application will be installed. For Android apps, the buttons are different. It says “Get from the Amazon App Store” with a small box and arrow icon, indicating that it will link to an external app.

The Wall Street Journal provided additional details on how this works. It looks like Amazon is making the Amazon App Store client for Windows. You will need to sign in with your Amazon account to download the app. The Microsoft Store exists as an integrated app search, not so much. This probably means that there are always two app stores running on Windows, as well as two places to check for updates. It does not appear to be effective.

Microsoft engineer Miguel de Icaza See if Windows 11 supports sideloading for those who don’t want to mess with that Amazon stuff. You should immediately have the following open source store options: F-Robot and APKMirror app download. It may only be a matter of time before someone makes the Google Play Store fully functional.

X86 apps are on the rise on Google Play thanks to years of default settings and requests for additional build support. Is x86 popular in the Amazon App Store? You can download the Amazon App Store on any Android device, but all the Echo Fire devices that use Amazon exclusively were Arm. Many applications are universal and work on all architectures, so maybe…

It would have been nice if I pulled Microsoft Surface Duo and worked with Google to get a real Play Store in Windows 11. The problem with using Android outside of the Play Store is that I can’t access the Google Play Services API for things like push notifications. Amazon has been building their own alternative APIs and cloud services for Fire OS for years, and without Google Play, this is the next best thing.

This is all about compatibility with Windows 11 Android. But rest assured. Let’s take a closer look at some actual code.

Theodore Meeks

Lifelong foodaholic. Professional twitter expert. Organizer. Award-winning internet geek. Coffee advocate.

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Here’s how Android apps work on Windows 11:

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