A surprise move from Microsoft.
@kaitco@lemmy.world
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They might as well; it’s not great and it’s not easy to use.

You have to log into your phone every single time. The only reason I would want to use Android apps on a laptop is bc the phone is upstairs and I’m downstairs on the laptop.

The only workaround for this is to completely wonk around with the coding on the backend. Also, outside of a handful of games, the bulk of apps are trash and have better Windows non-store alternatives.

Not sure if they were trying to harmonize Android with Windows in the way that Apple products are made, but the whole thing has been executed as a huge mess.

@pycorax@lemmy.world
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Pretty sure you’re thinking about a completely different feature that’s tied to the Your Phone app. This is about running Android apps natively on Windows.

@kaitco@lemmy.world
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I know exactly what it is. I was able to “sort of” run a couple Android apps, but it never took advantage of the fact that my laptop has a touchscreen, even when in “tablet mode” and the second time I attempted to use it, I needed to verify on the Android phone again. I’ve had better success with the likes of Bluestacks or Memu.

Like I said, though, the vast majority of apps are useless anyway and a Windows-based alternative usually exists that performs better.

@pycorax@lemmy.world
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What do you mean verify on the Android phone? I had 0 instances of that when I was using it.

@reddig33@lemmy.world
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So why kill it off? Security vector? No one using it? No way to monetize it? Support nightmare? Natella got bored with it? All of the above?

I’m leaning more on nobody using it. Didn’t help that they partnered with Amazon for it.

I never even knew this was a thing until now.

@harsh3466@lemmy.ml
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Could be because, iirc, Amazon is starting to move away from Android.

paraphrand
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But third party app stores are so popular!

Aetherians
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And it’s also not publicly available for everyone.

@accideath@lemmy.world
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Doesn’t help either, that most Android apps are designed for touch screens and most windows machines don’t have one.

Also, when I tried it it was somewhat slow.

@gedaliyah@lemmy.world
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I have a handful of apps that I use exclusively through WSA. There are some apps that just work better in an android environment, and increasingly there are apps that require android or ios to function. For example, you can even use a landline and WSA to set up a WhatsApp account and use it from your PC. Or their apps that I want to put in a sandbox to use but not on my phone.

I even have lemmy apps that I use on the computer.

I wonder what this means for linux environment support in windows 11? They were introduced around the same time with the similar goal of expanding the functionality of Windows.

@mr_MADAFAKA@lemmy.ml
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Waydroid looking good

@taanegl@lemmy.world
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That’s a fair point. Maybe WSL2+Wayland+Waydroid does the trick and whatever they do is just duplication of effort.

@umbrella@lemmy.ml
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thats just linux with many extra steps

The Pantser
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So they are not pulling the feature from Windows right? We will still be able to side load?

That was the single feature that made Win11 even remotely interesting to me. One someone that upgraded right away so I asked about it. Performance was not great (at least for games right away) and the whole locked into Amazon was a no for me. I kept hoping we’d get a vanilla Android at some point. Glad I didn’t get Win11 now.

@Samsy@lemmy.ml
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Lol, I didn’t even know that this feature exists.

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