Microsoft has released a new Insider Build that allows US users to try out Android apps in Windows 11 from the Amazon app store.
This is a feature that’s been long awaited since its announcement in June, where you can download apps from the redesigned Microsoft Store and run popular Android apps alongside Paint, Office and others.
Yet the feature is set to go deeper than that. Microsoft announced new Surface products such as the Surface Pro 8, Surface Laptop 4 and the Surface Go 3, and if this feature is done well,it could mean that the budget Surface Go 3 may be the best Android tablet you can currently own.
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How did we get here?
Since the Windows Phone, Microsoft has wanted to make an impression in the mobile space, but ironically it was the company’s Surface line of products that helped make Windows on mobile more appealing.
Being able to use touch controls on Windows with a device that’s been partly designed for it gave greater potential for Android to appear on the operating system eventually. While you could organize your phone’s content through an app, the app store on Windows Phone and Windows 8 to Windows 10 were severely lacking. Combine this with the Store on Windows 8 being it always felt like there was opportunity for more, and now there is.
While it’s only available in the US for now, the amount of Android apps that you can use could be vast, from TikTok, to Instagram, and even to your banking apps.
However, thanks to the Surface Go 3’s budget price, it could make a positive impact on other Android tablets, but with the benefit of running Windows 11.
The best Android tablet you never knew you needed
While we said in our Surface Go 3 review that the tablet disappointed when it comes to performance and battery, it can still be a great secondary device to use for Android once the feature fully rolls out on Windows 11.
Using it as a banking and gaming device alongside watching content through your favorite Android apps will be alluring to many, and there’s inevitably going to be other ways of loading Android apps onto a Windows 11 device instead of using the Microsoft Store. It would also mean you don’t have to buy two devices, as something like the Surface Go 3 will act as both a Windows 11 device and an Android one as well.
There may even be a small resurgence of developers wanting to create tablet layouts for their apps, just so they look better on a Windows tablet.
However, some of this could be wishful thinking, and Android apps on Windows might just not take off. But there is a huge opportunity here for Microsoft, Amazon and Google to take advantage of Windows tablet users.
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