Image source: APPSO Author: Li Chen
On November 25, Twitter user Zac Bowden dropped a big bombshell – Microsoft may allow native Android apps to run on Windows next year.
Although no further details were provided, this news has attracted a lot of attention because the leaker Zac Bowden is actually a writer for Windows Central, who has been tracking Windows-related news for many years and has made some accurate leaks before, so the credibility of the content is relatively high.
Two days later, more details about this plan were exposed. According to insiders, Microsoft is building a “Latte” project, which aims to allow developers to package Android apps into applications that can run on Windows without changing the code and submit them to the Microsoft Store.
Windows running Android? Microsoft isn’t new to this.
The idea of running Android apps on Windows inevitably reminds people of Apple’s recent launch of the MacBook with the M1 chip, which can run iOS apps natively on the desktop environment, thus forming a unified ecosystem. 
However, for Microsoft, it does not have the strong ecosystem control that Apple has. Its cross-system ecosystem UWP has not been able to take off, and announcing the compatibility with Android now is very unfavorable news for UWP applications, and one could even say that the more perfect the plan to run Android apps is, the more it condemns UWP applications to “death”.
On the other hand, Android apps have never developed a viable tablet or desktop application environment, and the vast majority of applications still raise questions about their performance on larger screens. Previous attempts like RemixOS, Phoenix OS, and now TNT have all made many modifications to the system to run Android on larger screens.
Another key issue is, how much benefit Android developers can gain from submitting to the Microsoft Store is crucial to whether they have the motivation to do so.
Additionally, when I saw Microsoft wanting to run Android apps on Windows, my first feeling was… the tears of the times. Because this is not the first time Microsoft has had similar ideas.
Project Astoria. Image from: Prime Inspiration
Let’s go back to April 2015, when Microsoft officially announced the Project Astoria at the Build conference. The purpose of this project was to allow developers to easily port Android apps to Windows Phone with minor modifications.
Although this project faced some controversy when it was announced, it was not without merit as a means of salvation for the application-starved Windows Phone platform.
In August of the same year, the already released Windows 10 Mobile preview version still counted as the third force in the market besides iOS and Android, but by then Windows Phone was already on a downward trend. Windows 10 Mobile brought a glimmer of hope, including many things Windows Phone users had long dreamed of – “compatibility with Android, running Android apps directly”.
Windows Phone and Android. Image from: Windows Latest
At that time, developers discovered that Microsoft had integrated a complete Android 4.4.4 system and Linux compatibility layer into Windows 10 Mobile.
At that time, methods for converting Android APK files into Windows 10 Mobile APPX applications had already been exposed. Subsequently, even methods for direct installation of APKs without conversion appeared.
Developers were bustling about running Android, and it seemed like a thriving scene.
However, the idea of running Android was ultimately rejected by Microsoft. On September 28, 2015, two weeks before the official release of Windows 10 Mobile, Microsoft blocked the “technical loophole” for running Android.
In February 2016, Project Astoria, which had survived for only a few months, was officially abandoned due to various unsatisfactory experiences, and the attempt to “marry” with Android came to an end.
This outcome is hard to say whether it’s regrettable or not, as at that time Windows Phone had too many issues to address, from hardware to the system, and running Android apps was at best a beautiful fantasy, not a real “lifeline”.
Most attempts to be compatible with Android haven’t had a “good ending”.
Seeing Android as a “lifeline” or “enhancing the ecosystem” is not just Microsoft; BlackBerry, the lesser-known Sailfish, and even Google’s own desktop system ChromeOS have all announced plans to directly support Android applications or similar initiatives.
Now that BlackBerry has exited the smartphone stage, it had also attempted to make its own system compatible with Android apps before turning to use native Android.
BB10 compatible with Android apps. Image from: CrackBerry
At that time, BlackBerry was still using the BlackBerry 10 system, which was its self-developed operating system. The early versions were called QNX and used in BlackBerry’s tablet device PlayBook, and later officially named the BlackBerry 10 system when it landed on smartphones.
I myself bought the last classic model of BlackBerry, the Passport, which runs on the BB10 system and could run a considerable number of Android apps. However, in terms of running efficiency, it couldn’t compare to native applications, and even relatively lightweight applications couldn’t run particularly smoothly.
We have all witnessed BlackBerry’s subsequent situation; after the self-developed system showed no improvement, BlackBerry turned to use Android directly. However, it couldn’t find its place among the many Android manufacturers and, after selling the brand license to TCL, the few phones released were just barely surviving. After the agreement with TCL expired this year, we shouldn’t expect to see BlackBerry phones anymore.
ChromeOS running Android. Image from: XDA Forums – XDA Developers
Looking at Google, on May 20, 2014, at Google I/O, Google officially announced that it would bring Android applications to ChromeOS,and now ChromeOS can run Google Play Store and most of the applications on it,which has somewhat improved the ecosystem for ChromeOS, which lacks native applications, and so far the results look pretty good.
Although many systems that once supported Android applications have emerged, they couldn’t save the declining trend or further enhance the system’s competitiveness.
The most direct point is to look at the direct purpose of doing this. Unlike Apple’s desire to build a unified ecosystem, the direct purpose of most systems supporting Android applications is to try to save their increasingly declining systems. When a system already has many issues and is lagging behind its competitors, being compatible with the opponent’s applications will only decrease the platform’s attractiveness to developers. Perhaps this approach is not a “good medicine” but rather a “poison” that accelerates the platform’s demise.
Fortunately, Windows 10 is not a platform on the verge of death. As the most mainstream operating system, Microsoft has a lot of room for trial and error in the “integration” of Windows and Android. In addition to Project Astoria, Microsoft previously collaborated with Samsung phones to allow Android applications on the phone to run on the computer through the Your Phone feature. And even if UWP is directly abandoned in its current state, it wouldn’t truly harm Windows itself, but may spark a real collaboration with Android.
It is still too early to say whether this plan will progress smoothly, but we can still observe an overall trend in today’s internet world: the boundaries between mobile and desktop are no longer distinct, but the ecological boundaries are becoming increasingly blurred.
In a previous article about macOS Big Sur, I mentioned that it was “a great victory for mobile over desktop”. Now it seems, this may be another victory.
This article was written by Li Chen, first published on the WeChat public account “APPSO” (ID: appsolution), a professional media that makes your phone more usable. Please scan the QR code below to follow us.
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