When Microsoft announced the ability to run Android apps on Windows 11 the other day, I was genuinely impressed.  I thought that would be really cool, and I wondered if they could run Android apps better than Chrome OS can run Android apps. I thought it might be great for developers too as we could probably easily test Android apps and progressive web apps or web designs on Android without having to use a phone.   

Then reality settled in and I started wondering, as a consumer… “What Android apps would I even want to run on Windows?”

One “Gotcha” about Windows 11’s ability to run Android apps is that it will use the Amazon Fire app store instead of the Google Play Store. This brought about some criticism since Amazon’s Android app store has a much smaller selection of apps versus Google’s Play Store. 

https://twitter.com/dcseifert/status/1408088973830991876?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The above criticisms would certainly be valid on Amazon Fire Android devices that ONLY have the Amazon Android app store, but Windows also has support for Windows programs as well as excellent Progressive Web Apps.

Do any of the apps you regularly use on Android NOT already have something equivalent or better available on Windows?  Please let me know in the comments. Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea as it will make Windows much more flexible, but I can’t really think of a good use outside of software development.