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Microsoft opens the door to allow more Android apps on Windows 11
- Microsoft is allowing any developer with an Amazon Appstore Developer account to submit apps for distribution on Windows 11.
- Developers will have to submit their apps for testing first.
- This should bump up the number of Android apps available on Windows 11 significantly.
Back in February 2022, the Amazon Appstore on Windows 11 launched in a public beta. At first, users only had access to about 50 Android apps. But after removing certain restrictions, users will now have access to thousands of Android apps.
Microsoft announced today that a change coming to the Amazon Appstore on Windows 11. The company is now allowing any developer with an Amazon Appstore Developer account to submit an app for Windows 11 distribution. Correspondingly, Windows 11 users are likely to see a significant influx of Android apps they can download.
As mentioned earlier, when the app store became available to the public, there were only about 50 Android apps that were compatible with Windows 11. Microsoft later bumped the number up to over 20,000 apps. Currently, the Amazon Appstore reportedly has over 50,000 Android apps, but they won’t be available immediately.
Before they’ll be ready to run on Windows, the developers will have to submit their apps for testing. To make the process easier, Microsoft provided guides on how to make their apps compatible with Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA). These guides focus on window resizing and native mapping to accommodate a different form factor.
At the moment, the Amazon Appstore is available to 31 countries across nine markets. This includes the US, Japan, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, Australia, and Germany. Microsoft also announced that Microsoft Store users will now be able to get AI-generated review summaries that summarize customer reviews and highlight topline details.