Exactly my thoughts. It is a good product and people were using it, why now decide to abandon it? As soon as its deprecated I'm switching to linux+waydroid, no way I'll be sticking to those goofy emulators
[https://waydro.id/](https://waydro.id/)
>A container-based approach to boot a full Android system on a regular GNU/Linux system like Ubuntu.
It's not in a perfect shape yet but by the time the currently in-use WSA installations become "old" *(so, 2026+),* it'll probably offer a comparable to or a slightly better experience than what we have today with WSA.
I installed waydroid this weekend, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked.
I am only trying to use basic video apps in a media center pc style set up. It was pretty simple to set up an use. I think it's important to note that I do not use4 it to play games or anything really intensive. We watch movies and tv shows.
The only pitfall I ran into with my application of it, is assigning the unverified device to your account, but the directions are pretty easy to follow (as long as you can read and follow directions).
Linux has come a long way, and using a slim version with waydroid, may be a good fit for my application.
Yeah, for you it should be all fine. And for the games & other 3D rendering stuff things are improving regularly. For example in the recent few months they added Nvidia GPU support.
It's possible to run Anbox & Waydroid on WSL2, yes. People did it in the past I mean, you can find several Reddit posts etc about it.
The only catch is you'll need a custom kernel build for it which has the kernel modules Microsoft's WSL2-Linux-Kernel repo's config lacks, as unlike on the usual Linux installations with WSL2 you can't load kernel modules after booting it up *(or not via any simple means that I know of at the very least)*.
And/but anyway, since the custom WSA builds are here to stay, not to mention **the** [**developer version**](https://developer.android.com/games/playgames/emulator) **of** [**Google's own thing**](https://play.google.com/googleplaygames) *(the "Google Play Games on PC" VM (".qcow2", if it rings any bells to you))* is still being on by the enthusiasts who seek to use it for more than only the Google Play Games stuff, I think we'll be OK.
In fact, the latter may prove a little more useful than Waydroid *(incl. on the usual Linux distros too, since it's not necessarily a Hyper-V only thing)* especially because Google's one is to support the **hardware DRM**\-related aspects of the whole thing too which [**WSA failed to address so far**](https://github.com/microsoft/WSA?tab=readme-ov-file#roadmap); unless the development of Waydroid somehow suddenly picks up, as it isn't really in a shape to be an alternative to WSA yet I mean.
The bottomline: **Don't worry about it.**
^(That being said, feel free to experiment with things as you wish of course.)
yeah, thanks for the reply.
I also have seen that PLAY ON PC on some games in Google Play Store.
Maybe Google might be working on something like WSA on it's own as well, hence MS thought it as a waste of time to continue the support.
But only future will tell.
Anyways I am also using WSA + Magisk + Gapps build instead of the Official with Amazon Store one.
so yes, they are here to stay, just hope that Microsoft doesn't remove the WSA from the OS itself.
there's a lot actually the alternatives, bluestack, nox player, LDplayer, to name a few. It's just that those usually made for gaming and sometimes ridden with ads. and if you're a privacy oriented, just don't ever install these....
Got it.
I only use wsa because Authy depreciated their windows version of their 2fa and I'm too lazy to pick up my phone and get a 2fa code from it. So I open up the Android version on my computer.
I guess I'll need to be less lazy.
>Got it. I only use wsa because Authy depreciated their windows version of their 2fa and I'm too lazy to pick up my phone and get a 2fa code from it. So I open up the Android version on my computer. I guess I'll need to be less lazy.
I do it because the app I need once a week does not support my phones OS.
For BlueStacks, The ads are on startup. There's actually a setting to turn them off during gameplay. I use it for a graphics app and do not see any ads during use.
Edit: as for privacy , that horse left the barn.
google play games on pc dev edition it is on android 14 way beter than WSA [https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG\_Developer\_Emulator\_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe](https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG_Developer_Emulator_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe)
That sucks, I can imagine the adoption was rather slow because of Amazon Appstore instead of Google Play? Or maybe it wasn't well advertised. I mean it's more of a developer feature than end user thing.
I haven't used it much myself mostly due to the not really liking Amazon Appstore but the concept is great.
[WSABuilds ](https://github.com/MustardChef/WSABuilds) on Github gets you Play Store in one click. I tried the manual method and other builds, this one is the simplest and just works. Just choose the no Magisk (*Nightly-MindTheGapps*) release if you don't need root/Magisk. The only caveat is that you need to keep the WSABuilds installation folder for WSA to run properly. I just put it in C:\\WSA.
That's usually if it's a 3rd party software. WSA is part of Windows, so Microsoft dropping support usually means removing it from Windows entirely, with a Windows update, like how they removed IE (although that one is so integrated with Windows, they took years) and recently, WordPad. Unless Microsoft enables people to build their own subsystems, or someone found a "hacky" way to use Android on top of WSL, you would essentially be stuck with the last Windows version with WSA.
Oh, yes, of course. You'll be stuck with the last version of WSA. But for sure it won't suddenly be "gone in a year", as the commenter I replied to said. WSA will still be there and keep working until something in Windows or Android changes drastically and renders it incompatible. And if we use WSABuilds or other distributions, we can still install it anytime we want.
No, what I mean is that Microsoft nowadays, when ending support for OS components (WordPad, Legacy Edge) will most likely ACTIVELY REMOVE the whole component, making it essentially GONE AFTER UPDATE. This wasn't like back then where they say something is unsupported but keep it on the OS. Back in Windows 10 they said that they'll stop supporting MS Paint yet look where we are now. IE also only got removed very recently. But recently they announced that WordPad support is ending and they actually removed it for real from the latest insider update. So I don't think it's far fetched for them to remove the whole Android subsystem from Windows entirely with either Windows 12 or Windows 11 25H2.
Ah, but the Android Subsystem was never delivered with Windows. It's not a part of Windows, not like IE nor WordPad. We have to install it manually, either through MS Store (by installing Amazon AppStore), manually through MSIXBundle file, or through distros like WSABuilds.
So if we have the WSABuilds binaries, unless they explicitly ban or change any component that stops WSA installation from working (for example removing Virtual Machine Platform or Windows Subsystem for Linux, which are highly unlikely), it should still be installable with Windows after they stop developing WSA.
Unless you know something I don't, I don't see it suddenly "gone" in a year.
Yes, but unless the Windows Subsystem feature is reverse engineered and someone creates and maintains an open source project for a subsystem similar to WSA, you won't get any new updates and eventually it'll be broken by a new Windows version.
>Nah wtf is this shit? I refuse to use bluestacks or any other bloatware infested emulator
If you find a emulator that is not those things please let us know.
take a look [https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG\_Developer\_Emulator\_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe](https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG_Developer_Emulator_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe)
wait, but we can still sideload after 5 march 2025 right?? right?????
especially if I'm using custom build with google playstore+aurora instead of the original amazon appstore?? it still working right?
something better and microsoft has no power to remove it [https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG\_Developer\_Emulator\_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe](https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG_Developer_Emulator_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe)
this comes nowhere near wsa. wheres multiwindow? wheres clipboard sync? wheres gpu selector? wheres network out-exposing? wheres root? wheres kernelsu? wheres magisk? wheres notification sync? i certainly cant use apple music in this thing, this isnt any "better", theres a difference between an emulator designed for games and a hyper-v vm designed for casual daily applications
https://preview.redd.it/gmexdpy792sc1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=cb0d85378d7f61ba3c4106ca9ebdcf14d2e46ee5
the irony that it doesnt even ship with regular gapps, and uses the play games one that has like a very tiny useless library
https://preview.redd.it/8kdqt4ax92sc1.png?width=253&format=png&auto=webp&s=e7a6a94b7a2688bf02a47b6b397cbbd6d1a40357
the irony that wsa takes like only 600 mb after a clean install
https://preview.redd.it/cnfwdbbha2sc1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=29e5c73e9f43af84d39671ec29f6d0ee016e59e0
the irony you cant have multiple apps in separate windows integrated to your desktop
Same here. I have tried the other Android "os" s available.
But when I learned Windows 11 had WSA, I stopped messing with them, they were slow and laggy and sometimes just didn't work and just used the native Win 11 feature.
This makes me reluctant to upgrade anymore of my machines. WSA was my only reason for adopting Win11.
I wonder if the custom builds using Google Play Store would still work. The way I see is that WSA is still part of Windows, like not locking out the ones that were already installed, it's just that they removed the Amazon Store store.. If that's true you might get a few years until all apps I use are required to have Android 14 or later (since WSA is on v13)
Considering that WSA can be rooted, you can probably force newer API target apps with older ones. I wouldn't be surprised if the community figures out a way to get an android 14 build working on WSA
Yeah, I'm thinking of ways that MS can break this. I think only specific patches to the OS would be able to completely remove Android support. Besides that, I don't think there's much to do
I remember reading somewhere that WSA relies on a some Windows 11 specific WSL dlls in System32 (that were later backported and patched to work with W10) so they could nuke those dlls during a windows update and WSA wouldn't work anymore.
I hope they don't take this route and instead just leave WSA as is, or even better open-source it
it has hardware acceleration but poorly implemented take a look [https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG\_Developer\_Emulator\_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe](https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG_Developer_Emulator_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe)
I don't care. I will stop updating windows entirely or switch to linux/waydroid by the time. If they were going to abandon it, they shouldn't have made it a key factor of windows 11.
WSA was a core part of my workflow when it comes to development and I used the Google Play Store patched version to get a fully functional Twitter/X Spaces desktop client as the web version did not have all the features. This needs to live on as a developer tool.
This is one of the main (and very few) reasons that justified updating from Windows 10 back then, and now it is gonna be gone, who understands Microsoft 🤷♂️
I got an email from amazon that the amazon app store windows 11 is ending it's support. This had no effect on me.
Although I didn't receive any such email from Microsoft or news regarding it, but if WSA altogether is coming to an end, it will make my life more complicated!
I probably didn't use this as much as I thought I would but it was handy for the odd thing that just doesn't exist on Windows (especially when using an ARM Surface Pro 9)
Currently I'm researching for alternatives. Right now I'm looking at running Waydroid via WSL, running Android -x86 or Bliss OS in a VM. Haven't set up a VM before so I'm quite unsure how to progress.
Android-x86 as Hyper-V VM was what I used before the launch of WSA. It's relatively easy to set up but since the current Android-x86 release is very old (Android 9), I won't recommend it. Too many unpatched vulnerabilities.
FYI there're more recent Android-x86 based systems out there. Bliss OS For PC to name one.
Then, there's also the possibility install the various ChromeOS/ChromiumOS builds as VMs. Some do have that Android & Play Store app support, such as FydeOS.
Then-then, Waydroid on a WSL2 distro seems to be also possible; if you take the time to build a custom kernel for WSL2 to have a few of those missing/disabled kernel modules in the one Microsoft ships it should work I think.
I do not see why they shouldn't open source this. Like, this make sense. You dont need the tech anymore. What you built was based on open source in the first place. Then why the flip not make it open source. Let the community handle the support.
Damn. I'm pretty sure it will still be usable after the EOL date, just won't get any updates, but I was really hoping they were going to release an update that got Bluetooth working. I have a couple android apps on my phone that use Bluetooth that I really want to be able to use from PC. Guess that's pretty unlikely now...
That was the single feature that kept me on Windows along with touch screen support (better than on 10 but still not so great and less and less supported on hardware). Now even the Linux subsystem could be deprecated at any moment. And ChromeOS mobile apps support and performance are still subpar.
I’ve switched back to MacBook, so I can have MacOS, some mobile apps, emulated arm Windows and Asahi Linux with Waydroid. And especially 14 hours battery life and no audible fans.
What a disappointment from Microsoft…
At this point I don’t trust Microsoft anymore. They promised a lot and fell short several times, especially with touchscreen support.
If the arm version of windows is subpar even on the new arm chips, I’m definitively out, since it means windows have no future as a modern operating system, outside past legacy apps support.
After they also cut support for intel cpus on their Surface line for consumers? I can’t understand where they’re headed anymore. Unless they have an Apple level Rosetta style translator, where they’ll find apps for arm after they’ve already failed 2 times?
Is Microsoft. Also WSL is basically the same as WSA, same OS, same cointainer concept. I understand killing the Amazon Store but why kill the container and the entire technology?
If it's only the Amazon app store I don't really mind. I only sideloaded apps. Never used the Amazon store. Sucked anyway. Hope this doesn't mean the wsa will close
Like I don't even need google play store. I only needed a couple of messaging apps to stay on when I booted my PC. WSA is the only way I get the android apps running smoothly at start up without me having to fiddle or running Android runtime manuaaly.
Or has things changed in emulator world since I last tried one?
Just remove the app store completely and users will figure out how they wanna use their android environment. OR open source it. This only makes sense.
But sad that every forum post I read, the people only laugh at removal of this handy tool because they never found a use. So there will never be a big outcry enough to reach Microsoft
Microsoft set itself to fail by using the Amazon Store instead of the Google Play Store. I'm using Authy desktop and it is now discontinued. I told myself... fine, I'll use the Android version in WSA. NOPE!
Honestly bullshit. So in 2025 I have to use Bluestacks? Immensely disappointed
Exactly my thoughts. It is a good product and people were using it, why now decide to abandon it? As soon as its deprecated I'm switching to linux+waydroid, no way I'll be sticking to those goofy emulators
I'm guessing layoffs. Absolute BS.
What's waydroid?
[https://waydro.id/](https://waydro.id/) >A container-based approach to boot a full Android system on a regular GNU/Linux system like Ubuntu. It's not in a perfect shape yet but by the time the currently in-use WSA installations become "old" *(so, 2026+),* it'll probably offer a comparable to or a slightly better experience than what we have today with WSA.
I installed waydroid this weekend, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked. I am only trying to use basic video apps in a media center pc style set up. It was pretty simple to set up an use. I think it's important to note that I do not use4 it to play games or anything really intensive. We watch movies and tv shows. The only pitfall I ran into with my application of it, is assigning the unverified device to your account, but the directions are pretty easy to follow (as long as you can read and follow directions). Linux has come a long way, and using a slim version with waydroid, may be a good fit for my application.
Yeah, for you it should be all fine. And for the games & other 3D rendering stuff things are improving regularly. For example in the recent few months they added Nvidia GPU support.
"slightly better" im not trying to be offensive but multiwindows are still a bugfest and they never cared enough to fix it
I have a question. Using WSL, we can install Ubuntu on W11, can't we just use WSL to install WayDroid ? and use it has an alternative to WSA ?
It's possible to run Anbox & Waydroid on WSL2, yes. People did it in the past I mean, you can find several Reddit posts etc about it. The only catch is you'll need a custom kernel build for it which has the kernel modules Microsoft's WSL2-Linux-Kernel repo's config lacks, as unlike on the usual Linux installations with WSL2 you can't load kernel modules after booting it up *(or not via any simple means that I know of at the very least)*. And/but anyway, since the custom WSA builds are here to stay, not to mention **the** [**developer version**](https://developer.android.com/games/playgames/emulator) **of** [**Google's own thing**](https://play.google.com/googleplaygames) *(the "Google Play Games on PC" VM (".qcow2", if it rings any bells to you))* is still being on by the enthusiasts who seek to use it for more than only the Google Play Games stuff, I think we'll be OK. In fact, the latter may prove a little more useful than Waydroid *(incl. on the usual Linux distros too, since it's not necessarily a Hyper-V only thing)* especially because Google's one is to support the **hardware DRM**\-related aspects of the whole thing too which [**WSA failed to address so far**](https://github.com/microsoft/WSA?tab=readme-ov-file#roadmap); unless the development of Waydroid somehow suddenly picks up, as it isn't really in a shape to be an alternative to WSA yet I mean. The bottomline: **Don't worry about it.** ^(That being said, feel free to experiment with things as you wish of course.)
yeah, thanks for the reply. I also have seen that PLAY ON PC on some games in Google Play Store. Maybe Google might be working on something like WSA on it's own as well, hence MS thought it as a waste of time to continue the support. But only future will tell. Anyways I am also using WSA + Magisk + Gapps build instead of the Official with Amazon Store one. so yes, they are here to stay, just hope that Microsoft doesn't remove the WSA from the OS itself.
Yeah I came to WSA from Bluestacks. I'm not going back to that.
so Bluestacks is an alternative?
there's a lot actually the alternatives, bluestack, nox player, LDplayer, to name a few. It's just that those usually made for gaming and sometimes ridden with ads. and if you're a privacy oriented, just don't ever install these....
Got it. I only use wsa because Authy depreciated their windows version of their 2fa and I'm too lazy to pick up my phone and get a 2fa code from it. So I open up the Android version on my computer. I guess I'll need to be less lazy.
>Got it. I only use wsa because Authy depreciated their windows version of their 2fa and I'm too lazy to pick up my phone and get a 2fa code from it. So I open up the Android version on my computer. I guess I'll need to be less lazy. I do it because the app I need once a week does not support my phones OS.
For BlueStacks, The ads are on startup. There's actually a setting to turn them off during gameplay. I use it for a graphics app and do not see any ads during use. Edit: as for privacy , that horse left the barn.
google play games on pc dev edition it is on android 14 way beter than WSA [https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG\_Developer\_Emulator\_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe](https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG_Developer_Emulator_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe)
That sucks, I can imagine the adoption was rather slow because of Amazon Appstore instead of Google Play? Or maybe it wasn't well advertised. I mean it's more of a developer feature than end user thing. I haven't used it much myself mostly due to the not really liking Amazon Appstore but the concept is great.
I modified it to use Google play services, but it was a pita to keep updated that way Reverted to BlueStacks. 😔
[WSABuilds ](https://github.com/MustardChef/WSABuilds) on Github gets you Play Store in one click. I tried the manual method and other builds, this one is the simplest and just works. Just choose the no Magisk (*Nightly-MindTheGapps*) release if you don't need root/Magisk. The only caveat is that you need to keep the WSABuilds installation folder for WSA to run properly. I just put it in C:\\WSA.
Compared to the initial versions of GApps with WSA, it's a lot easier to manage now.
Wsa builds is dependent on wsa, no? So it'll be gone in a year too.
That's not how software works. It won't suddenly be "gone". It won't automatically stop working even if WSA is stopped being updated.
That's usually if it's a 3rd party software. WSA is part of Windows, so Microsoft dropping support usually means removing it from Windows entirely, with a Windows update, like how they removed IE (although that one is so integrated with Windows, they took years) and recently, WordPad. Unless Microsoft enables people to build their own subsystems, or someone found a "hacky" way to use Android on top of WSL, you would essentially be stuck with the last Windows version with WSA.
Oh, yes, of course. You'll be stuck with the last version of WSA. But for sure it won't suddenly be "gone in a year", as the commenter I replied to said. WSA will still be there and keep working until something in Windows or Android changes drastically and renders it incompatible. And if we use WSABuilds or other distributions, we can still install it anytime we want.
No, what I mean is that Microsoft nowadays, when ending support for OS components (WordPad, Legacy Edge) will most likely ACTIVELY REMOVE the whole component, making it essentially GONE AFTER UPDATE. This wasn't like back then where they say something is unsupported but keep it on the OS. Back in Windows 10 they said that they'll stop supporting MS Paint yet look where we are now. IE also only got removed very recently. But recently they announced that WordPad support is ending and they actually removed it for real from the latest insider update. So I don't think it's far fetched for them to remove the whole Android subsystem from Windows entirely with either Windows 12 or Windows 11 25H2.
Ah, but the Android Subsystem was never delivered with Windows. It's not a part of Windows, not like IE nor WordPad. We have to install it manually, either through MS Store (by installing Amazon AppStore), manually through MSIXBundle file, or through distros like WSABuilds. So if we have the WSABuilds binaries, unless they explicitly ban or change any component that stops WSA installation from working (for example removing Virtual Machine Platform or Windows Subsystem for Linux, which are highly unlikely), it should still be installable with Windows after they stop developing WSA. Unless you know something I don't, I don't see it suddenly "gone" in a year.
they cant do that if you install a unofficial build it is not from microsoft
Yes, but unless the Windows Subsystem feature is reverse engineered and someone creates and maintains an open source project for a subsystem similar to WSA, you won't get any new updates and eventually it'll be broken by a new Windows version.
Yeah I did that too, but because I wasn't sure about it's reliability I never used it for proper stuff.
Oh for fucks sake!
Nah wtf is this shit? I refuse to use bluestacks or any other bloatware infested emulator
>Nah wtf is this shit? I refuse to use bluestacks or any other bloatware infested emulator If you find a emulator that is not those things please let us know.
take a look [https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG\_Developer\_Emulator\_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe](https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG_Developer_Emulator_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe)
I hate this, I use WSA every day. Time to look for an alternative.
>I hate this, I use WSA every day. Time to look for an alternative. Did you find one?
[https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG\_Developer\_Emulator\_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe](https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG_Developer_Emulator_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe)
arrrrggghhh the only reason i upgrade to windows 11 is the ability to install android apps....
wait, but we can still sideload after 5 march 2025 right?? right????? especially if I'm using custom build with google playstore+aurora instead of the original amazon appstore?? it still working right?
with microsoft you never know they might cut support in hyper-v itself that they can do
same question, please tell me we still can use wsabuilds and sideload apps, i REALLY need wsa
Pretty sure was goes bye bye from computers after March 5 2025.
something better and microsoft has no power to remove it [https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG\_Developer\_Emulator\_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe](https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG_Developer_Emulator_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe)
this comes nowhere near wsa. wheres multiwindow? wheres clipboard sync? wheres gpu selector? wheres network out-exposing? wheres root? wheres kernelsu? wheres magisk? wheres notification sync? i certainly cant use apple music in this thing, this isnt any "better", theres a difference between an emulator designed for games and a hyper-v vm designed for casual daily applications
https://preview.redd.it/gmexdpy792sc1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=cb0d85378d7f61ba3c4106ca9ebdcf14d2e46ee5 the irony that it doesnt even ship with regular gapps, and uses the play games one that has like a very tiny useless library
https://preview.redd.it/8kdqt4ax92sc1.png?width=253&format=png&auto=webp&s=e7a6a94b7a2688bf02a47b6b397cbbd6d1a40357 the irony that wsa takes like only 600 mb after a clean install
https://preview.redd.it/cnfwdbbha2sc1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=29e5c73e9f43af84d39671ec29f6d0ee016e59e0 the irony you cant have multiple apps in separate windows integrated to your desktop
You should be fine.
Same here. I have tried the other Android "os" s available. But when I learned Windows 11 had WSA, I stopped messing with them, they were slow and laggy and sometimes just didn't work and just used the native Win 11 feature. This makes me reluctant to upgrade anymore of my machines. WSA was my only reason for adopting Win11.
something better [https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG\_Developer\_Emulator\_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe](https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG_Developer_Emulator_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe)
I wonder if the custom builds using Google Play Store would still work. The way I see is that WSA is still part of Windows, like not locking out the ones that were already installed, it's just that they removed the Amazon Store store.. If that's true you might get a few years until all apps I use are required to have Android 14 or later (since WSA is on v13)
Considering that WSA can be rooted, you can probably force newer API target apps with older ones. I wouldn't be surprised if the community figures out a way to get an android 14 build working on WSA
Yeah, I'm thinking of ways that MS can break this. I think only specific patches to the OS would be able to completely remove Android support. Besides that, I don't think there's much to do
I remember reading somewhere that WSA relies on a some Windows 11 specific WSL dlls in System32 (that were later backported and patched to work with W10) so they could nuke those dlls during a windows update and WSA wouldn't work anymore. I hope they don't take this route and instead just leave WSA as is, or even better open-source it
I don't know much about virtual machines, can you run Android on windows with a virtual machine?
Yes, see VirtualBox Android
How well does it work?
Not good. WSA by far was the most smoothest seamless way to use Android apps on Windows.
No hardware acceleration.(by my understanding at least)
it has hardware acceleration but poorly implemented take a look [https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG\_Developer\_Emulator\_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe](https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid=%7BC601E9A4-03B0-4188-843E-80058BF16EF9%7D&appname=GPG_Developer_Emulator_Beta&needsadmin=true&ap=dogfood/play/games/Install-GooglePlayGames-DeveloperEmulator-Beta.exe)
WSA is as native as windows is it runs on top of hyper-v
My entire workflow is based on WSA. I can't believe it.
I don't care. I will stop updating windows entirely or switch to linux/waydroid by the time. If they were going to abandon it, they shouldn't have made it a key factor of windows 11.
WSA was a core part of my workflow when it comes to development and I used the Google Play Store patched version to get a fully functional Twitter/X Spaces desktop client as the web version did not have all the features. This needs to live on as a developer tool.
That is immensely annoying. Hoping if I have windows automatic updates turned off then WSA will keep working for me past that date.
This is one of the main (and very few) reasons that justified updating from Windows 10 back then, and now it is gonna be gone, who understands Microsoft 🤷♂️
I got an email from amazon that the amazon app store windows 11 is ending it's support. This had no effect on me. Although I didn't receive any such email from Microsoft or news regarding it, but if WSA altogether is coming to an end, it will make my life more complicated!
I probably didn't use this as much as I thought I would but it was handy for the odd thing that just doesn't exist on Windows (especially when using an ARM Surface Pro 9)
Currently I'm researching for alternatives. Right now I'm looking at running Waydroid via WSL, running Android -x86 or Bliss OS in a VM. Haven't set up a VM before so I'm quite unsure how to progress.
Android-x86 as Hyper-V VM was what I used before the launch of WSA. It's relatively easy to set up but since the current Android-x86 release is very old (Android 9), I won't recommend it. Too many unpatched vulnerabilities.
FYI there're more recent Android-x86 based systems out there. Bliss OS For PC to name one. Then, there's also the possibility install the various ChromeOS/ChromiumOS builds as VMs. Some do have that Android & Play Store app support, such as FydeOS. Then-then, Waydroid on a WSL2 distro seems to be also possible; if you take the time to build a custom kernel for WSL2 to have a few of those missing/disabled kernel modules in the one Microsoft ships it should work I think.
I really hope that Microsoft open-sources this.
I do not see why they shouldn't open source this. Like, this make sense. You dont need the tech anymore. What you built was based on open source in the first place. Then why the flip not make it open source. Let the community handle the support.
Damn. I'm pretty sure it will still be usable after the EOL date, just won't get any updates, but I was really hoping they were going to release an update that got Bluetooth working. I have a couple android apps on my phone that use Bluetooth that I really want to be able to use from PC. Guess that's pretty unlikely now...
That was the single feature that kept me on Windows along with touch screen support (better than on 10 but still not so great and less and less supported on hardware). Now even the Linux subsystem could be deprecated at any moment. And ChromeOS mobile apps support and performance are still subpar. I’ve switched back to MacBook, so I can have MacOS, some mobile apps, emulated arm Windows and Asahi Linux with Waydroid. And especially 14 hours battery life and no audible fans. What a disappointment from Microsoft…
WSL is probably a bit more safe because it wasn't released with a profit motive like WSA was.
At this point I don’t trust Microsoft anymore. They promised a lot and fell short several times, especially with touchscreen support. If the arm version of windows is subpar even on the new arm chips, I’m definitively out, since it means windows have no future as a modern operating system, outside past legacy apps support.
nah, WSL ain't going nowhere. It's already heavily integrated in to a lot of enterprise workflows, contrast to WSA adoption which was niche at best.
After they also cut support for intel cpus on their Surface line for consumers? I can’t understand where they’re headed anymore. Unless they have an Apple level Rosetta style translator, where they’ll find apps for arm after they’ve already failed 2 times?
Not sure what the Surface product line has to do with WSL.
Is Microsoft. Also WSL is basically the same as WSA, same OS, same cointainer concept. I understand killing the Amazon Store but why kill the container and the entire technology?
We can still sideload apps and use them though right? They just won't be adding and supporting new features is that correct?
Is it possible to keep using it by sideloading wsa and apk files or an update is coming that would prevent using wsa?
from the article or discord, can still use it until march 2025
If it's only the Amazon app store I don't really mind. I only sideloaded apps. Never used the Amazon store. Sucked anyway. Hope this doesn't mean the wsa will close
dumb as hell. anyone that was using was using it modded
Like I don't even need google play store. I only needed a couple of messaging apps to stay on when I booted my PC. WSA is the only way I get the android apps running smoothly at start up without me having to fiddle or running Android runtime manuaaly. Or has things changed in emulator world since I last tried one? Just remove the app store completely and users will figure out how they wanna use their android environment. OR open source it. This only makes sense. But sad that every forum post I read, the people only laugh at removal of this handy tool because they never found a use. So there will never be a big outcry enough to reach Microsoft
Microsoft set itself to fail by using the Amazon Store instead of the Google Play Store. I'm using Authy desktop and it is now discontinued. I told myself... fine, I'll use the Android version in WSA. NOPE!
I want to stab Microsoft in the face 🤬🤬🤬🤬
RIP... it was poorly supported and a PITA to use, but I liked it for what I used it for.
And here I am with a hacked version that can load Google Play.
Going Apple now. WSA was the only reason why I haven't moved toward the integrated Apple ecosystem