Microsoft announced today at that Windows 11 beta users can now test Android apps on their PCs, although there are only 50 apps available.
Windows Insider users in the United States with an Intel, AMD, or Qualcomm processor in their devices can download Android apps from the Microsoft Store.
However, the store does not host the apps and instead connects you to the Amazon Appstore to download them. You will need an active Amazon account to get started.
As with Chrome OS, Android apps can run concurrently with Windows 11. You can even pin them to the Start menu or taskbar.
Android apps will show push notifications in Action Center. Microsoft has also enabled the ability to share the clipboard between applications.
As this has just entered the testing phase, the apps available for testing are very limited: a mere fraction of the 600,000 Android apps offered on the Amazon Appstore, and only a fraction of the 3 million apps on Google Play.
“We’ve partnered with Amazon and popular app developers to select 50 apps for Windows Insiders to test and validate on a broad set of hardware.”Microsoft said in its announcement, adding that it will continue to release new apps in the coming months.
Some of the apps available are games like Lords Mobile and June’s Journey, reading apps like Kindle and Comics – both from Amazon – and children’s content like Khan Academy Kids and Lego Duplo World.
Microsoft will only enable Android apps on the Windows 11 beta channel. It plans to bring this feature to its developer channels “later.” As for when the capacity will reach the rest of Windows 11 users, we have to wait.