Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 289 posts

Re: Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

#201

Post by glhaynes »

jlawer wrote: post #195
naikrovek wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> some simple JVM container no, there's a new NT subsystem to support this: Windows Subsystem for Android, and as you could guess from the name, it is somewhat related to WSL. the NT kernel was always designed to accommodate multiple subsystems running at once. Until WSL, there was only ever the Windows subsystem itself. soon there will be a third subsystem one can install. this is neat, to me.

There was a posix subsystem as well in the early days, however it lacked functionality and was used as a “check that box” for procurement rather then functionality

Also OS/2 (1.x).

Re: Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

#202

Post by ThatPlayer »

rbanffy wrote: post #108
KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah? Tiktok's app is way better than the website. Snapchat etc doesn't even have a usable website.

I believe the question is why having the app on a Windows machine if the phone is usually nearby.

I have multiple monitors and it's easier and more convenient to throw up an app on my screen and control with my mouse and keyboard than to pick up my phone, unlock it, and use that screen.

Re: Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

#203

Post by chx »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #8

The article says this relies on "Intel Bridge Technology". Anyone know more about it? All I could find easily was https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/discre... Want to highlight one paragraph from that description: "Intel Bridge Technology is run-time post compiler that can be integrated into Android-in-Container to enable certain Android apps – those not written in Java or compiled to run natively…

https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/24/22549303/windows-11-intel... reports it will work on AMD CPUs too.

> According to Intel, Bridge itself is a run-time post compiler that translates applications that are compiled for non-x86 platforms (in this case, Android applications) into x86 instructions (which can run on Windows 11 with Intel or AMD CPUs).

Re: Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

#204

Post by dharma1 »

la_fayette wrote: post #148

To be honest I have no idea why someone would use Android apps on Windows? Popular apps can be used via the web-browser or even have a separat desktop app (e.g., whatsapp, facebook, youtube, ...). That is similar with games. Edit: apps which require sensors, such as gps, gyro, etc. wouldn't work anyway...

A lot of web apps are not as good as their native counterparts. And maybe MS is planning an act 2 with foldable phone/tablet hybrids, after the failed Windows Phone.

There’s been a few attempts at containerised android apps on Linux too - Anbox and some others. Looks like that one runs on the Pine phone now too. Makes more sense for touch/smaller form factor, not so much for desktop (except maybe for some popular mobile only apps like TikTok)

Re: Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

#205

Post by ThatPlayer »

2Gkashmiri wrote: post #60

how can windows run android apps but linux which is base of android itself cannot do that ? what happened to arm and x86 differences? if rosetta stone thing is being done, why can't linux do that even natively on arm? edit: base=kernel

Android still uses bytecode for a lot of apps. Unless you're using Android NDK, which does have native code and requires different releases for different processors, ARM and x86 isn't really relevant.

Intel even made an attempt into the smartphone CPU market with the Asus ZenFone 4 back in 2014 with an Intel Atom x86 processor running Android. Modern Pixelbooks (and other x86 Chromebooks) run Android apps fine too, and those are technically Linux, so therefore it's already been done. Anbox also seems to do it fine in a container. Never tried that though.

Re: Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

#206

Post by dharma1 »

madeofpalk wrote: post #38
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #11

If anything, Amazon knows this will really incentivize updating your Android app on the Amazon App Store, or bringing it there if you haven't. And that's good for us because, should the Amazon App Store become more viable for manufacturers, Google might find themselves increasingly losing control of Android, and increasingly forced to make the Play Store more competitive.

Will it? Has the iOS apps on M1 Macs incentivised developers to do anything, apart from just opt out of the program?

Yeah I don’t think it’s really taken off. The iOS apps that I would actually like to use on my M1 Mac have just opted out - not sure why.

For MS I think this could be a modest low risk win, even if it doesn’t massively take off. It gets them at least some tablet apps, and some popular social apps for desktop, without having to incentive developers to port them.

Re: Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

#207

Post by Marsymars »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #8

The article says this relies on "Intel Bridge Technology". Anyone know more about it? All I could find easily was https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/discre... Want to highlight one paragraph from that description: "Intel Bridge Technology is run-time post compiler that can be integrated into Android-in-Container to enable certain Android apps – those not written in Java or compiled to run natively…

> For that matter how many apps are targeting Android devices with Intel CPUs anymore?

Pretty much none, but I expect most devs are developing/testing on x86 Android emulators, since they're developing on x86 systems.

Re: Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

#208

Post by cruano »

spideymans wrote: post #179
la_fayette wrote: post #148

To be honest I have no idea why someone would use Android apps on Windows? Popular apps can be used via the web-browser or even have a separat desktop app (e.g., whatsapp, facebook, youtube, ...). That is similar with games. Edit: apps which require sensors, such as gps, gyro, etc. wouldn't work anyway...

Because mobile apps ported on the web often suck (ahem... Instagram, TikTok), and the mobile version might suck less.

Also Apple is doing this too with the M1

Re: Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

#209

Post by ianlevesque »

PaulHoule wrote: post #146
pimterry wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ”Games”: hard to say, because Windows is a better platform for games than Android by 10x. Note that there are quite a few commercial "Android on PC" emulators already, e.g. https://www.memuplay.com/ , https://www.bluestacks.com/ and https://www.bignox.com/ . In terms of scale, Bluestacks claim they have 50 million monthly active users which makes them pretty substantial! From https://www.bluestacks.com/promote-your…

I use Bluestacks to run home automation programs. It subjects me to ads for third-rate games that I can't imagine people play. First-tier Android games like F/GO and Genshin Impact seem to be disabled on non-phone devices, particularly Bluestacks and Android TV. I see a huge amount of fan art from those games, but I wonder if gaming on Bluestacks is just a Potemkin Village.

It's probably more that Genshin Impact has an actual Windows client than any indictment of Android emulation.

Re: Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11

#210

Post by cruano »

Synaesthesia wrote: post #199
tehnub wrote: post #188

I'm super excited to try the Android Apple Music app on Windows! We've been stuck with the bloated, slow iTunes desktop app for so long now. I was hoping they'd announce an update for it along with lossless and spatial audio, but there's been nothing so far.

Have you tried the web player? Also the beta version for Android has lossless and spatial

Or the iPod.js[1] from yesterday, I've been using it unironically and is great

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27606099

Post reply on HN