One of the big new features of Windows 11 was going to be its ability to run Android apps. However, that was a long time coming.
The feature wasn’t available when Windows 11 launched in October 2021, and when it was, it was exclusive to the US for several months. Japan was next on the list, before the rollout was expanded to include Europe, Andorra, UK, France, Germany and more with the 22H2 update.
If you live in one of these countries, you might be thrilled to think that you can finally play Android apps on your desktop. They fully integrate into the Windows 11 experience, letting you pin them to the taskbar or use them with multitasking.
However, the excitement won’t last long once you see which apps are actually available. There’s an explanation, although we encourage you not to completely give up hope that you can get the apps you really want.
Why can’t Windows 11 run all Android apps?
Unfortunately, Windows 11 doesn’t use the Android app store that most people expected, which is the Google Play Store.
Instead, you’ll have to deal with the Amazon Appstore, which we’ve already found in the tablets Fire from Amazon.
The Appstore version in Windows 11 was recently expanded to include over 20,000 apps, but that’s quite small compared to the over 2.6 million (according to Statesman) that you will find in the Play Store.
Obviously, these numbers may be somewhat off the mark because no one needs even 200,000 apps. The biggest problem is that there are significant absences among these 200,000. Many messaging apps, banking on line and the smart home are not among them. And when it comes to popular games, the selection is minimal.
If you are here it is probably because you have already verified that an app you wanted to install is not in the Amazon Appstore, you searched to find out why and you found this article. Previously, the only solution to this problem was a Software emulation like BlueStacks, but now there is another way.
How to Run All Android Apps on Windows 11
Windows 11 support for Android apps is based on the Windows Subsystem for Android, which can be modified to run all apps from the Google Play Store.
As you can imagine, this solution is complicated and not officially supported by Microsoft. But if everything goes as it should, you only have to do it once.
The method has changed several times since Windows 11 was released, but we tested it and can confirm that it worked at the time of writing. To find out how, read How to Add Google Play Store Access in Windows 11.
Works on both 64-bit and ARM devices, covering most Windows 11 compatible devices. Please go to “Settings” > “System” > “About” and tick “System type” to make sure.
Original article published in Tech Advisor.
