11 ms·

So, this is the second time a "run your Android apps on Windows" initiative fizzles out: before WSA (which was Amazon-centric), there was a late-2020 "Your Phon

So, this is the second time a "run your Android apps on Windows" initiative fizzles out: before WSA (which was Amazon-centric), there was a late-2020 "Your Phone" feature that (briefly) allowed Samsung apps on Windows desktops. Not sure if this means anything other than "phone apps run best on, well, a phone", especially since I can't think of anything from my phone that I would truly like on my desktop, other than instant messages, which are already available in various ways?

bsimpson 3y ago
If I ran Windows on my Legion Go, I'd probably be looking into WSA. Windows is famously crappy on touchscreens. It would be really nice to have something like ChromeOS or Android be the UI for a gaming handheld.
hiccuphippo 3y ago
I remember sometime in the last decade Google had an extension to run Android apps in Chrome. I tested it with a comics app, which I wanted for the bigger screen, and it worked fine. When I tried to search for the extension years later I couldn't find it.
- nedrylandJP 3y ago
  I remember ARChon Runtime: https://archon-runtime.github.io/ https://archon-runtime.github.io/
- geku3 3y ago
  It was called ARC Welder.
- mdaniel 3y ago
  while not as fun as "in Chrome," I can this second run quite a few Android apps in ChromeOS on my Pixelbook. They are a UI abomination, but it does give me "local" access to 1Password and a few other things which would be annoying as PWAs
0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
There are plenty of applications I would like to run in a completely sandboxed environment separate from the blast radius of my phone. Anything by Facebook would be a given. Chat applications which still do not have a serviceable web interface. Whatever.
basch 3y ago
I haven't tried it, but allegedly Outlook for Android runs better on Windows than the new Outlook for Windows. Which makes some sense, as one is a native app and one is a web app. https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/i-actually-hate-the-new-outlook-for-windows https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/i-ac...
- wkat4242 3y ago
  Yeah I don't know how they plan to shaft business users with that. It's so slow. I noticed recently that Microsoft relented and soon starts introducing CoPilot features into old outlook (or 'real' or 'full' outlook as people are calling it at work). Previously it was coupled to 'new' outlook only to promote adoption. But it really sees a lot of pushback from users. I hope this will continue into not canning the real outlook at all. Microsoft are always pushing 'more change management' as a 'solution' but some changes are simply not good and it's normal for users to resist. If anything they push too much (like turning on features by default, and sending reminders that you have not used feature xyz enough last week through Viva Insights) And the skullduggery they're doing with the consumer windows mail migration (pulling the user's email into their cloud without making this very clear) is totally out of line IMO. Personally I don't even hate the web version so much. I use it daily because Microsoft never made a native outlook for my platform anyway. But I'm not a heavy user of mail and I do see its limitations.
  - basch 3y ago
    its sort of the business model at this point. you cant just subscribe to security updates without new features. to justify the cost they always have to cram new, and by new i mean change. google feels the same way. things that work need to be rebuilt and rereleased to justify headcount. the mail -> new outlook is just another in the long tradition of microsoft pushing a new native gui framework, only to abandon it in house. How can they ever expect developers developers developers to commit to another future abandonware. https://irrlicht3d.org/index.php?t=1626 https://irrlicht3d.org/index.php?t=1626 they really should be going in reverse and making all their apps pure native and then getting them to also render as html.
pjmlp 3y ago
If you're counting that, than this is the 3rd time. The first one was Project Astoria, whose ashes gave birth to WSL.
- mook 3y ago
  That would have been WSL1, right? As in, the thing that tried to implement Linux syscall interfaces on top of the Windows kernel? The current thing (WSL2) is "just" a VM (with lots of work to make it work nicer)…
  - creshal 3y ago
    > As in, the thing that tried to implement Linux syscall interfaces on top of the Windows kernel? It's really funny, NT was supposed to be great at three things: - be easily ported to different hardware architectures, which then never actually became relevant (and nowadays macOS is the best example for actual architecture migrations!) - have a much more sophisticated and elaborate security model than those filthy unices (and now we're getting sudo on Windows, because 30 years later, it's still too complicated for anyone to use as intended) - allow fluid switching between different userlands, be it win32, OS/2 (RIP), Unix (RIP), and anything else you could want in the future! (except no, you're getting VMs now)
    - cherryteastain 3y ago
      >macOS is the best example for actual architecture migrations Eh, they did 2 migrations while supporting at most 2 architectures concurrently. Nothing compared to Linux which is maintained for x86, POWER, ARM, s390x, MIPS etc concurrently
      - ArchOversight 3y ago
        macOS did migrations. Linux is just supported on those architectures at the same time without any real layer that allows users to switch from for example x86 to ARM without recompiling the entire world to match.
      - 3y ago
izacus 3y ago
Well, you're a bit cherry picking here aren't you? Ignoring big success of software like Bluestacks, which is spawning these competitors?
novagameco 3y ago
Your phone is still available and really cool. But it mirrors your phone instead of running the apps on your PC
bonton89 3y ago
My user case could basically be summed as running apps that I never wanted on my phone in the first place.
freitasm 3y ago
> So, this is the second time a "run your Android apps on Windows" initiative fizzles out: before WSA (which was Amazon-centric), there was a late-2020 "Your Phone" feature that (briefly) allowed Samsung apps on Windows desktops. This feature still exists and it works. It's partly developed by Samsung, so that's why it works.
mnahkies 3y ago
Some of the challenger banking apps are mobile only which might be a use-case. Ideally I'd like to see them offer a desktop/responsive web app though
- kevincox 3y ago
  Most of these use device attestation anyways so they are unlikely to run on Windows. The bank wants to ensure that the user doesn't have root access which isn't the case on Windows.
bane 3y ago
Not super well supported, but there's a Samsung Dex app for Windows and MacOS (I think unsupported now) that let's you plug your phone into your computer, and get Dex in a window. Runs the phone apps on the phone, gets your android store etc. but you get an "ok" minimal desktop that lets you do your phone stuff with a mouse and keyboard. After I figured that out I basically dropped all the run Android on a desktop things.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
  There's also https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy which works for any Android, not just Samsung
  - Dalewyn 3y ago
    Unfortunately a non-starter since it requires USB Debugging Mode, which these days most programs if they see it will refuse to run.
    - antifa 3y ago
      Also no way to trigger DeX/Android Desktop mode without some kind of fake HDMI dongle.
    - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
      I have never in my life seen an app that cared about adb being enabled. I'm willing to believe that you've encountered them, but I'm gonna question "most programs".
sockdolager 3y ago
Your Phone / Phone Link still supports this. See: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/setting-up-apps-in-the-phone-link-743dc9c6-d9db-8f64-763d-8b64cb401a5d https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/setting-up-apps-in....
13of40 3y ago
I was using the Google Photos map search via BlueStacks on my Windows machine briefly, but that's only because Google made the perplexing decision to not put that on desktop.
- viliml 3y ago
  It's not perplexing, it's pure business. "Mobile-first" has been the dogma for a decade already for a reason. dO yOu GuYs NoT hAvE pHoNeS?
skissane 3y ago
> Not sure if this means anything other than "phone apps run best on, well, a phone", especially since I can't think of anything from my phone that I would truly like on my desktop, other than instant messages, which are already available in various ways? Sometimes I go to this coworking space. They have an iOS/Android app you need to use to book a desk, message the admins, unlock the front door, pay, etc. No web app. Forces me to get my phone out when I’d rather just stay on my laptop. If I could run their app on my laptop (haven’t looked into it yet), I’d like that
- uncletammy 3y ago
  It forces you to consent to whatever arbitrary EULA that the people running the coworking space probably haven't read.
  - skissane 3y ago
    You can do that in a webapp too. At first login, you have to click "Agree" to lengthy terms and conditions displayed. Until you click "Agree", your login session is only good for the terms screen, not the rest of the webapp.
kyriakos 3y ago
"Your phone" feature still works. Apps don't run on your PC but are displayed on the PC desktop from your phone. I have a Samsung phone and use this feature dialy.
akira2501 3y ago
> especially since I can't think of anything from my phone that I would truly like on my desktop The SMS and Calls. Seriously, at this point, my phone is the least useful device I own for managing both of these functions. The only utility in having them in some broken down hard to use form is for the slight convenience of being able to use them outside of my home if I wanted to. I rarely want to. I'd much prefer these functions to be on my PC. It'd also mean I could just ignore my phone much more effectively and just pick up on everything at my desk when i get home.
- sudosysgen 3y ago
  I use KDE connect for that on Windows too, it does both SMS and calling. Your phone only needs to be in the same network which isn't an issue on your desk when you get home.
  - nullwarp 3y ago
    Yeah KDE connect fan here - works great absolutely amazing piece of open source software.
    - soganess 3y ago
      I use the GConnect implementation of KDE Connect and it works really well... except for the SMS forwarding. It has all the usual issues of this kind of mirroring software: (1) once in a while it falls out of sync. (2) the messaging UI is really spartan (and for some reason doesn't support OS-level spell check?) (3) MMS support is either spotty or missing (4) notifications occasionally just stop happening. I'm still grateful for it and use it everyday, but GConnect is #1 on my list of "once I get some time to do OSS stuff again".
  - starik36 3y ago
    How exactly do you do SMS and Calling on Windows? I have KDE Connect installed, and it has SMS and telephone integration checked, but I don't see any notifications or anything. https://i.imgur.com/JQphE16.png https://i.imgur.com/JQphE16.png
skrowl 3y ago
[dead]
thekevan 3y ago
"especially since I can't think of anything from my phone that I would truly like on my desktop" Wyze doesn't support viewing their cameras on PC without a bunch of fiddling. I downloaded the app and was running within 20 minutes of having the idea. The usability isn't the best, but having it on my desktop is has been a real time saver with a new puppy. Some apps don't have a good Windows equivalent.
gbraad 3y ago
> Your Phone Still exists and still using it but this is not the same as that is just showing the phone's screen and content on your desktop.
93po 3y ago
Duolingo restricts some features to the app only and not the browser. Hinge dating app only provides app and no browser option. I am sure there are other examples of use cases.
NoPicklez 3y ago
The moment Androids apps on Windows was released I thought it was useless in my opinion. I assumed there was a subset of users out there that needed something like this but I thought it was a complete waste of time.
rchaud 3y ago
there are millions of laptops with touchscreens capable of playing Android games, which would be the main use case for WSA.
dtagames 3y ago
Google Play Games[0] is also an Android environment for Windows. Many mobile games look and play better on a big screen. To deploy this way, developers create a packaged version of their Android app for GPG. [0] https://play.google.com/googleplaygames https://play.google.com/googleplaygames
BlindEyeHalo 3y ago
> especially since I can't think of anything from my phone that I would truly like on my desktop One thing that immediately comes to mind are streaming apps. Most providers don't offer windows apps and the websites don't allow downloads, which is very annoying for laptops/windows tablets.
viliml 3y ago
> especially since I can't think of anything from my phone that I would truly like on my desktop Games. There are a ton of games that are mobile-exclusive for absolutely no reason other than reducing developer workload by staying confined to one platform, and work great on emulators.
cykros 3y ago
I could see Twitch streamers preferring to run android games on a PC for streaming purposes, especially making use of a wired connection. But yes, it doesn't seem like a huge use case.
anotherlab 3y ago
WSA wasn't intended for calls or messaging. It was intended to allow developers who had developed apps for the Fire tablets to also provide or sell the apps on Windows. It was also an alternative way for Android developers to write and test code on Windows. You could edit/deploy faster to WSA than to an Android emulator. And WSA apps are resizable, which is handy for seeing how well your code could handle different Android layouts. The drawback was that WSA did not have any Google Play services. So no map, no Android push notifications, etc. That could have been addressed if Google wanted to license all of the Play bits.
qingcharles 3y ago
There are a huge number of phone apps which are not on the desktop and you have to use them on your phone. Tons of banking apps, e.g. Cash App, Venmo etc, are not supported on the Web. Other apps, like TikTok have Web versions which are so broken to the point where they are unusable. I have to keep a Chromebook to be able to run Android apps on the desktop, unless anyone has another solution?

bsimpson 3y ago

If I ran Windows on my Legion Go, I'd probably be looking into WSA. Windows is famously crappy on touchscreens. It would be really nice to have something like ChromeOS or Android be the UI for a gaming handheld.

hiccuphippo 3y ago

I remember sometime in the last decade Google had an extension to run Android apps in Chrome. I tested it with a comics app, which I wanted for the bigger screen, and it worked fine. When I tried to search for the extension years later I couldn't find it.

nedrylandJP 3y ago
I remember ARChon Runtime: https://archon-runtime.github.io/ https://archon-runtime.github.io/
geku3 3y ago
It was called ARC Welder.
mdaniel 3y ago
while not as fun as "in Chrome," I can this second run quite a few Android apps in ChromeOS on my Pixelbook. They are a UI abomination, but it does give me "local" access to 1Password and a few other things which would be annoying as PWAs

0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago

There are plenty of applications I would like to run in a completely sandboxed environment separate from the blast radius of my phone. Anything by Facebook would be a given. Chat applications which still do not have a serviceable web interface. Whatever.

basch 3y ago

I haven't tried it, but allegedly Outlook for Android runs better on Windows than the new Outlook for Windows. Which makes some sense, as one is a native app and one is a web app. https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/i-actually-hate-the-new-outlook-for-windows https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/i-ac...

wkat4242 3y ago
Yeah I don't know how they plan to shaft business users with that. It's so slow. I noticed recently that Microsoft relented and soon starts introducing CoPilot features into old outlook (or 'real' or 'full' outlook as people are calling it at work). Previously it was coupled to 'new' outlook only to promote adoption. But it really sees a lot of pushback from users. I hope this will continue into not canning the real outlook at all. Microsoft are always pushing 'more change management' as a 'solution' but some changes are simply not good and it's normal for users to resist. If anything they push too much (like turning on features by default, and sending reminders that you have not used feature xyz enough last week through Viva Insights) And the skullduggery they're doing with the consumer windows mail migration (pulling the user's email into their cloud without making this very clear) is totally out of line IMO. Personally I don't even hate the web version so much. I use it daily because Microsoft never made a native outlook for my platform anyway. But I'm not a heavy user of mail and I do see its limitations.
- basch 3y ago
  its sort of the business model at this point. you cant just subscribe to security updates without new features. to justify the cost they always have to cram new, and by new i mean change. google feels the same way. things that work need to be rebuilt and rereleased to justify headcount. the mail -> new outlook is just another in the long tradition of microsoft pushing a new native gui framework, only to abandon it in house. How can they ever expect developers developers developers to commit to another future abandonware. https://irrlicht3d.org/index.php?t=1626 https://irrlicht3d.org/index.php?t=1626 they really should be going in reverse and making all their apps pure native and then getting them to also render as html.

pjmlp 3y ago

If you're counting that, than this is the 3rd time. The first one was Project Astoria, whose ashes gave birth to WSL.

mook 3y ago
That would have been WSL1, right? As in, the thing that tried to implement Linux syscall interfaces on top of the Windows kernel? The current thing (WSL2) is "just" a VM (with lots of work to make it work nicer)…
- creshal 3y ago
  > As in, the thing that tried to implement Linux syscall interfaces on top of the Windows kernel? It's really funny, NT was supposed to be great at three things: - be easily ported to different hardware architectures, which then never actually became relevant (and nowadays macOS is the best example for actual architecture migrations!) - have a much more sophisticated and elaborate security model than those filthy unices (and now we're getting sudo on Windows, because 30 years later, it's still too complicated for anyone to use as intended) - allow fluid switching between different userlands, be it win32, OS/2 (RIP), Unix (RIP), and anything else you could want in the future! (except no, you're getting VMs now)
  - cherryteastain 3y ago
    >macOS is the best example for actual architecture migrations Eh, they did 2 migrations while supporting at most 2 architectures concurrently. Nothing compared to Linux which is maintained for x86, POWER, ARM, s390x, MIPS etc concurrently
    - ArchOversight 3y ago
      macOS did migrations. Linux is just supported on those architectures at the same time without any real layer that allows users to switch from for example x86 to ARM without recompiling the entire world to match.
    - 3y ago

izacus 3y ago

Well, you're a bit cherry picking here aren't you? Ignoring big success of software like Bluestacks, which is spawning these competitors?

novagameco 3y ago

Your phone is still available and really cool. But it mirrors your phone instead of running the apps on your PC

bonton89 3y ago

My user case could basically be summed as running apps that I never wanted on my phone in the first place.

freitasm 3y ago

> So, this is the second time a "run your Android apps on Windows" initiative fizzles out: before WSA (which was Amazon-centric), there was a late-2020 "Your Phone" feature that (briefly) allowed Samsung apps on Windows desktops. This feature still exists and it works. It's partly developed by Samsung, so that's why it works.

mnahkies 3y ago

Some of the challenger banking apps are mobile only which might be a use-case. Ideally I'd like to see them offer a desktop/responsive web app though

kevincox 3y ago
Most of these use device attestation anyways so they are unlikely to run on Windows. The bank wants to ensure that the user doesn't have root access which isn't the case on Windows.

bane 3y ago

Not super well supported, but there's a Samsung Dex app for Windows and MacOS (I think unsupported now) that let's you plug your phone into your computer, and get Dex in a window. Runs the phone apps on the phone, gets your android store etc. but you get an "ok" minimal desktop that lets you do your phone stuff with a mouse and keyboard. After I figured that out I basically dropped all the run Android on a desktop things.

yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
There's also https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy which works for any Android, not just Samsung
- Dalewyn 3y ago
  Unfortunately a non-starter since it requires USB Debugging Mode, which these days most programs if they see it will refuse to run.
  - antifa 3y ago
    Also no way to trigger DeX/Android Desktop mode without some kind of fake HDMI dongle.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
    I have never in my life seen an app that cared about adb being enabled. I'm willing to believe that you've encountered them, but I'm gonna question "most programs".

sockdolager 3y ago

Your Phone / Phone Link still supports this. See: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/setting-up-apps-in-the-phone-link-743dc9c6-d9db-8f64-763d-8b64cb401a5d https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/setting-up-apps-in....

13of40 3y ago

I was using the Google Photos map search via BlueStacks on my Windows machine briefly, but that's only because Google made the perplexing decision to not put that on desktop.

viliml 3y ago
It's not perplexing, it's pure business. "Mobile-first" has been the dogma for a decade already for a reason. dO yOu GuYs NoT hAvE pHoNeS?

skissane 3y ago

> Not sure if this means anything other than "phone apps run best on, well, a phone", especially since I can't think of anything from my phone that I would truly like on my desktop, other than instant messages, which are already available in various ways? Sometimes I go to this coworking space. They have an iOS/Android app you need to use to book a desk, message the admins, unlock the front door, pay, etc. No web app. Forces me to get my phone out when I’d rather just stay on my laptop. If I could run their app on my laptop (haven’t looked into it yet), I’d like that

uncletammy 3y ago
It forces you to consent to whatever arbitrary EULA that the people running the coworking space probably haven't read.
- skissane 3y ago
  You can do that in a webapp too. At first login, you have to click "Agree" to lengthy terms and conditions displayed. Until you click "Agree", your login session is only good for the terms screen, not the rest of the webapp.

kyriakos 3y ago

"Your phone" feature still works. Apps don't run on your PC but are displayed on the PC desktop from your phone. I have a Samsung phone and use this feature dialy.

akira2501 3y ago

> especially since I can't think of anything from my phone that I would truly like on my desktop The SMS and Calls. Seriously, at this point, my phone is the least useful device I own for managing both of these functions. The only utility in having them in some broken down hard to use form is for the slight convenience of being able to use them outside of my home if I wanted to. I rarely want to. I'd much prefer these functions to be on my PC. It'd also mean I could just ignore my phone much more effectively and just pick up on everything at my desk when i get home.

sudosysgen 3y ago
I use KDE connect for that on Windows too, it does both SMS and calling. Your phone only needs to be in the same network which isn't an issue on your desk when you get home.
- nullwarp 3y ago
  Yeah KDE connect fan here - works great absolutely amazing piece of open source software.
  - soganess 3y ago
    I use the GConnect implementation of KDE Connect and it works really well... except for the SMS forwarding. It has all the usual issues of this kind of mirroring software: (1) once in a while it falls out of sync. (2) the messaging UI is really spartan (and for some reason doesn't support OS-level spell check?) (3) MMS support is either spotty or missing (4) notifications occasionally just stop happening. I'm still grateful for it and use it everyday, but GConnect is #1 on my list of "once I get some time to do OSS stuff again".
- starik36 3y ago
  How exactly do you do SMS and Calling on Windows? I have KDE Connect installed, and it has SMS and telephone integration checked, but I don't see any notifications or anything. https://i.imgur.com/JQphE16.png https://i.imgur.com/JQphE16.png

skrowl 3y ago

[dead]

thekevan 3y ago

"especially since I can't think of anything from my phone that I would truly like on my desktop" Wyze doesn't support viewing their cameras on PC without a bunch of fiddling. I downloaded the app and was running within 20 minutes of having the idea. The usability isn't the best, but having it on my desktop is has been a real time saver with a new puppy. Some apps don't have a good Windows equivalent.

gbraad 3y ago

> Your Phone Still exists and still using it but this is not the same as that is just showing the phone's screen and content on your desktop.

93po 3y ago

Duolingo restricts some features to the app only and not the browser. Hinge dating app only provides app and no browser option. I am sure there are other examples of use cases.

NoPicklez 3y ago

The moment Androids apps on Windows was released I thought it was useless in my opinion. I assumed there was a subset of users out there that needed something like this but I thought it was a complete waste of time.

rchaud 3y ago

there are millions of laptops with touchscreens capable of playing Android games, which would be the main use case for WSA.

dtagames 3y ago

Google Play Games[0] is also an Android environment for Windows. Many mobile games look and play better on a big screen. To deploy this way, developers create a packaged version of their Android app for GPG. [0] https://play.google.com/googleplaygames https://play.google.com/googleplaygames

BlindEyeHalo 3y ago

> especially since I can't think of anything from my phone that I would truly like on my desktop One thing that immediately comes to mind are streaming apps. Most providers don't offer windows apps and the websites don't allow downloads, which is very annoying for laptops/windows tablets.

viliml 3y ago

> especially since I can't think of anything from my phone that I would truly like on my desktop Games. There are a ton of games that are mobile-exclusive for absolutely no reason other than reducing developer workload by staying confined to one platform, and work great on emulators.

cykros 3y ago

I could see Twitch streamers preferring to run android games on a PC for streaming purposes, especially making use of a wired connection. But yes, it doesn't seem like a huge use case.

anotherlab 3y ago

WSA wasn't intended for calls or messaging. It was intended to allow developers who had developed apps for the Fire tablets to also provide or sell the apps on Windows. It was also an alternative way for Android developers to write and test code on Windows. You could edit/deploy faster to WSA than to an Android emulator. And WSA apps are resizable, which is handy for seeing how well your code could handle different Android layouts. The drawback was that WSA did not have any Google Play services. So no map, no Android push notifications, etc. That could have been addressed if Google wanted to license all of the Play bits.

qingcharles 3y ago

There are a huge number of phone apps which are not on the desktop and you have to use them on your phone. Tons of banking apps, e.g. Cash App, Venmo etc, are not supported on the Web. Other apps, like TikTok have Web versions which are so broken to the point where they are unusable. I have to keep a Chromebook to be able to run Android apps on the desktop, unless anyone has another solution?