Although support for Android apps on Windows 11 was one of the headlining features when the operating system was announced back in 2021, users quickly found out that only a handful of apps in the Amazon Appstore are officially supported in the preview. Even with this limited scope, the associated experience offered by Android apps on Windows 11 wasn’t good, and the implementation had a lot of notable issues. However, Amazon and Microsoft have been working out some kinks and the Amazon Appstore on Windows 11 has now hit general availability for developers.
In a relatively quiet announcement on its developer page, Amazon has stated that its Appstore is now generally available for all developers. The company says that it has joined forces with Microsoft to offer this experience through Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA). It touted the idea of being able to easily reach millions of Windows PC customers without building dedicated desktop applications, citing several success stories such as Epic Seven, Hungry Shark Evolution, TikTok, and more.
It is important to note that general availability for developers is different from general availability for regular consumers. The Amazon Appstore still remains in preview for Windows 11 users, which means that they may run into notable issues. However, with the latest move, Amazon is essentially encouraging any and all developers to leverage the Amazon Appstore and WSA implementation to build and test apps that are also geared towards the Windows 11 desktop market.
Amazon has urged interested developers to check out its Windows compatibility guide, FAQs, GitHub, and other desktop-specific documentation about adding keyboard and mouse support through the Amazon Input SDK, Live App Testing, and debugging. Developers also need to ensure that they are running Windows 11 on a supported configuration with at least 8GB of RAM and WSA installed in order to build and test their apps. It’s clear that both Microsoft and Amazon are preparing for the general availability of the Amazon App store on Windows 11 for consumers soon, but no timelines have been detailed yet. As it currently stands, the implementation is available in preview for 31 countries with over 20,000 apps in store.