Microsoft today announced that Windows 11 and the new Microsoft Store wouldn't support Android apps when the operating system starts to roll out on October 5.
"We look forward to continuing our journey to bring Android apps to Windows 11 and the Microsoft Store through our collaboration with Amazon and Intel," Microsoft said. "This will start with a preview for Windows Insiders over the coming months."
In June, the company said that it planned to introduce some of the Amazon Appstore's catalog of Android apps to the new Microsoft Store, and an employee later confirmed that Windows 11 users could side-load apps from other sources, too.
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Windows 11 would then rely on a technology called Intel Bridge, a runtime post-compiler that's supposed to let software written for non-x86 hardware run natively on Intel and AMD processors to allow people to actually use those Android apps.
Microsoft didn't say what's responsible for this feature's delay. However, this is a complex system that relies on the cooperation of three large companies; there are plenty of reasons why the feature might not be ready in time for Windows 11's launch.
We've reached out to Microsoft for more information about what caused the delay and when it expects to start testing Android app support on Windows 11 via the Windows Insider Program. We'll update this post if the company responds.
