It was only a few years ago — in 2021 — that Windows 11 finally gained Android apps officially, thanks to a Microsoft-maintained VM dubbed the Windows Subsystem for Android, or WSA. With WSA, Windows 11 customers could install and run virtually the entire lineup of Android applications, if desired through Amazon's Android marketplace — the Amazon Appstore, via an Amazon-Microsoft deal.

Now, Microsoft is dealing the finishing blow: Windows 11 is now losing official Android app support—and with it, access to the Amazon Appstore.

Microsoft said Tuesday it expects to end support for the Windows Subsystem for Android, or WSA, within the calendar year. Users of Windows 11 who installed the Amazon Appstore or its portfolio of Android apps will remain able to use them after March 5, 2025, but no longer. And on Wednesday, Amazon said it will deny new users the right to install the Amazon Appstore from the Microsoft Store, Microsoft's app store for Windows, starting tomorrow.

Customers can continue to use Amazon Appstore apps that they have installed and will be able to receive app updates [after March 6], according to an Amazon blog post released today. "Developers will no longer be able to submit net new apps targeting Windows 11 after March 5, 2024; however developers with an existing app can continue to submit app updates until Amazon Appstore on Windows 11 is fully discontinued."

As Andrew Cunningham of Ars Technica notes, the WSA was merely a useful way to run Android apps on Windows but was by definition limited since it--at least without workaround--couldn't access the Google Play Store, the official repository for Android apps. The Amazon Appstore had fewer options, no doubt to encourage users to look first to native Windows or web-based versions of apps they might have installed through the WSA.

In other words, WSA usage was probably pretty low — at a time when Microsoft's attention is very obviously elsewhere, such as on generative AI and its various incarnations in Windows.

Now, though, the end of WSA support from Microsoft does not mean running Android apps on Windows is impossible. Indeed, there are also third-party alternatives: Waydroid-a Linux-based mechanism for running Android apps via system containers-and BlueStacks, an emulator for Android on Windows and macOS.
 
And it does not seem that Microsoft's plans to bridge the worlds of Android and Windows into one are disappearing into thin air either.

Microsoft only just this week released a feature that lets Android users tap the camera on their device as a webcam when accessing Windows 11. Microsoft maintains elsewhere in apps like Link to Windows, which enables both Android and iOS users to make and take calls, respond to texts and view and clear notifications from a Windows PC.