Microsoft has made the controversial decision to end Windows 11 support for Android apps. And it’s unclear why — and how Android users will respond.
Microsoft said on Tuesday (March 5) that it will no longer support Android apps running on its operating system via Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) starting on March 5, 2025.
“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,” Microsoft wrote in a developer document. The company said it will continue providing technical support on the Windows Subsystem for Android until then, and cautioned that Android apps will only be available to Windows 11 users until March 5 of next year.
The move is nothing if not a surprise for both developers and Android users. In 2021, Microsoft launched Windows 11 along with support for Android apps via the Windows Subsystem for Android. Through that subsystem Windows users could install Android apps on their Windows PC, albeit only from a select group of Android apps available on the Amazon Appstore.
A Microsoft spokesperson told Tom’s Guide at the time that the company was “excited” to bring Android apps to the operating system, and access to native Android apps was one of the big selling points of Windows 11 when it debuted in 2022.
Now that selling point is going away, and it's unclear why. Although Microsoft and Google have had their fair share of issues over mobile ecosystems over the years, the companies seemed to have found common ground in Windows 11.
What’s unknown, however, is how many Windows 11 users really turned to their laptops and desktops to download and play casual Android games or other Android apps. It’s possible, given this latest announcement, that Android app uptake wasn’t as strong as Microsoft had hoped. And perhaps it’s simpler and more resource-efficient to kill the feature off rather than keep supporting it.
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