Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11 with Amazon’s Appstore

Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11. The software giant revealed its surprise Windows 11 addition during its special Windows event today. Android apps will run natively on Windows 11 and will be downloadable from the new Windows store that’s included in the operating system.

Microsoft says it’s using Amazon’s app store to bring Android apps to Windows 11. Apps will be available directly from the new Windows store, and powered by Intel Bridge technology. Android apps on Windows 11 can be pinned to the taskbar, or snapped alongside traditional Windows apps.

Android apps on Windows 11 are an obvious answer to Apple’s progress with its M1 chips and running iOS apps on macOS. While there are many web equivalents to mobile apps, they’re often lackluster and certain apps like Snapchat, Ring, Venmo, Roomba, and the majority of home automation apps aren’t available on the web.

Microsoft demonstrated apps like TikTok running on Windows 11 today. The Windows store that Microsoft showed lists Ring, Yahoo, Uber, and others so we’ll likely see full access to Amazon’s Appstore. But it’s not clear how many existing devices will support Android apps with Windows 11 and this partnership with Intel.

This surprise announcement follows Microsoft’s original plans to let Windows developers rework their existing Android apps for Windows in 2015. Project Astoria, as Microsoft labeled it, was a method to try to convince developers to port apps and make it easier to do so. The plan eventually fell apart less than a year later, with Microsoft admitting that having “two bridge technologies to bring code from mobile operating systems to Windows was unnecessary.”

Microsoft has been toying with the idea of running Android apps on Windows natively for years, and the company had been experimenting with the idea of listing Android apps in the Windows store just ahead of the Windows 10 launch. Instead, Microsoft pushed ahead trying to convince developers to adopt its failed Universal Windows Platform.

Android app integration directly into Windows is a significant shift, especially as the company has been favoring Your Phone as the method to bridge the gap between Android and Windows. Microsoft has been embracing Android as the mobile version of Windows for years, and now those same mobile apps will run directly in Windows 11.

Developing… we’re adding more to this post, but you can follow along with our Windows 11 live blog to get the news even faster.