In October 2021, Microsoft introduced Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) – a confusingly named feature that allowed Windows 11 to run Android apps. This worked on both x86-64 and ARM processors, although most Android these days runs on ARM.
This feature is being phased out next year – the company has updated its Microsoft Learn page to note that WSA will lose support as of March 5, 2025. Until then, you can continue to install and run apps (from the Amazon App Store), even get support if you run into to problems.
But in a year, who knows. This is Windows, though, so it’s quite possible that a community effort will revive the feature – some developers have already figured out how to install and run the Google Play Store, even though it’s not officially supported.
Did it kill the WSA? The Play Store is the biggest moat Google has around Android – the OS may be open source, but devices without access to the Play Store aren’t seeing much adoption.
Windows Subsystem for Android
Anyway, there’s no word on changes to Phone Link, so you’ll still be able to use Android apps from your Windows device, they’ll just run on your phone and cast your screen to your PC. However, only certain phones of certain brands support this feature (you can find the list here).
There’s also Google’s own effort at running Android software on a PC – Google Play Games. As the name suggests, this is focused on gaming, but there is no fundamental difference between apps and games (well, games are much easier to monetize). There are also third-party apps that run Android software on Windows and Linux.
Have you used Windows Subsystem for Android? What did you do with it? Let us know in the comments.
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