Android Apps on Windows, Again (Premium)

Microsoft is reportedly looking at allowing Android apps to run natively on Windows again. But this may be a solution in search of a problem. After all, the availability of apps on Windows is already so strong that Microsoft is having trouble moving its user base to more modern platforms. And, more to the point, the availability of mobile apps on Chrome OS and macOS hasn’t exactly moved the needle on those rival desktop platforms.

So, what’s the point?

Looked at holistically, one might argue that the ability to run Android apps on Windows fits neatly into Satya Nadella’s pledge to meet Microsoft’s customers where they are and to stop pushing them towards the software giant’s own platforms when that doesn’t make sense for them. The days of “Windows only” and “Windows first” are, after all, well behind us, having failed to propel Microsoft’s desktop platform into the 21st century. Today, Windows is more about choice than it is about locking users into a particular ecosystem.

I guess I buy into that logic, and while it’s tragic that the Windows organization of 2015-2016 was unable to make this leap when it might have really mattered—you may recall that Terry Myerson killed off Project Astoria, Microsoft’s previous effort to bring Android apps to Windows because it worked “too well”—at least it’s happening now. Reportedly.

But I still wonder about the endgame here. While most Windows users will never understand, or even need to understand, the differences between the various types of apps that run on this platform today, I think it’s fair to say that only one of them—web apps—has made much of a difference. That is, most Windows users today split their time between native (and old-school) Win32 applications and web apps. And most of those users simply run web apps inside the browser—by far the most popular application type in Windows—and don’t even think of them as apps, regardless of their capabilities. They’re just regarded as web pages.

But they’re not just web pages.

That web apps have matured greatly over the past several years is, I assume, obvious. But it is perhaps less obvious to some that web apps are poised to become the mainstream desktop (and perhaps mobile) app platform, replacing native apps. And having spent a lot of time using the web browser-based Google Stadia game streaming service recently, I’m more positive about this fact than ever before. It’s astonishing how seamless this experience can be.

But that brings me back to my original question. Why even bring Android apps to Windows? After all, web apps do solve a problem—in the case of Windows, where the user base is still stuck on Win32—and they offer a modern way forward. A way that should work equally well no matter which desktop or mobile platform you choose.

So, what’s the point?

We can only speculate. And in digging for an answer that makes sense—is there, for example, some range of Android apps that are not available natively for Windows or on the web?—I can only come to one conclusion. There is not. And so Microsoft is only doing this because its desktop platform maker rivals are doing it. And it doesn’t want to get left behind from a perception perspective.

This isn’t as cynical as you may believe. If there’s one basic truth to be learned from the history of Windows, it’s that Microsoft’s desktop platform has never been truly original, and Microsoft has been, um, inspired by other platforms, especially the Mac, since the beginning. In bringing ideas from elsewhere to the masses, Microsoft has engaged in a form of innovation that few people even try to defend, though I feel it’s both important and necessary. It has made technology more accessible to more people.

Here in 2020, of course, this is no longer the case in that mobile platforms like Android and iOS/iPad together far outstrip the usage we see on Windows and other desktop platforms. But they can still be a source of inspiration for Windows: Many years ago, Steve Jobs talked about the “virtuous cycle” that allowed Apple to bring ideas from iOS back to the Mac. Microsoft can do this, too, with Windows, and it can cast a wider net than just its own platforms. Just as it always has.

I don’t feel that adding Android apps to Windows—even if Microsoft somehow gets it “right” in ways that it has absolutely not with the Apps feature in Your Phone—will really change anything. But the goal is no longer to grow the user base. Instead, Microsoft simply wants to retain what it has, and part of doing that requires it to update Windows to include features that its users expect because they’re available elsewhere. And if it does get Android compatibility working properly, these apps will simply be yet another choice among dozens of app type choices. It’s all good.