Official support for Android apps on Windows 11 is ending, and with it comes access to the Amazon Appstore.

Thanks to a virtual machine (VM) maintained by Microsoft named the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA), Windows 11 officially began to support Android apps just a few years ago, in 2021. Due to an agreement between Amazon and Microsoft, Windows 11 users could install and utilize almost the whole selection of Android apps with the WSA, if they so desired.

Microsoft declared today that it will discontinue WSA support within the year. Users of Windows 11 who have installed Android or Amazon Appstore apps will be able to utilize those programs until March 5, 2025, but not beyond. Furthermore, as of tomorrow, Amazon intends to stop new users from downloading the Amazon Appstore through the Microsoft Store, the company's Windows app store.

As Ars Technica's Andrew Cunningham notes, the WSA was limited from the start by lack of ability to connect to the Google Play Store, the official Android app store, at least not without hacks. Despite this, it was a useful means to run Android apps on Windows. Customers were presumably more inclined to prefer web-based or native Windows versions of the apps over WSA versions as there was a smaller selection in the Amazon Appstore.

Put another way, WSA usage was presumably quite low during a period when Microsoft's focus was clearly elsewhere, like on generative AI and its different iterations in Windows.

Microsoft doesn't seem to be backing down from its goal of bringing Android and Windows devices closer together.

Microsoft just released a feature that lets Android users utilize the camera on their device as a webcam on Windows 11. Microsoft also supports other apps, such as Link to Windows, which enables users of Android (and iOS) devices to monitor and dismiss notifications, make and answer calls, and respond to texts from a Windows PC.