The Windows subsystem for Android, which allows you to run smartphone applications on your PC, has suddenly disappeared from the Microsoft Store. The company has confirmed the end of development of the once-ambitious project and explained what this will mean for users.
Support for Android software emulation built into the OS will end on March 5, 2025. After this, only the Phone Link application for connecting the smartphone with the PC will continue to work, and to run APK files on a computer running Windows, you will need to separately install an emulator – for example, Bluestacks.
“Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA). As a result, Amazon Appstore on Windows and all apps and games that depend on WSA will no longer be supported starting March 5, 2025. Until then, technical support will remain available to customers,” Microsoft representatives said .
The company did not disclose the reasons for this decision. According to the authors of the XDA-Developers portal, the project “did not take off” due to the fact that the platform did not support Google Play, and only Amazon Appstore was used as an application store. The WSA subsystem received its last major update in 2023 . Then Android applications learned to “see” the computer’s memory.