- Microsoft ending support for Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA)
- WSA designed to run Android apps from Amazon Appstore on Windows 11
- Support for WSA will end on March 5, 2025; no impact on Windows Subsystem for Linux.
Whelp, even less reason to upgrade to Windows 11 when Windows 10 is retired. Microsoft doing its best to convince me to switch to Linux full-time.
Damn, this was going to be my workaround for using authy now they’re discontinuing the desktop app inexplicably.
Aegis, Bitwarden (now has 2FA in free plan), KeePass…
Can confirm KeePassXC works. But Aegis is android only and Bitwarden TOTP code generation is still paid right now.
Bitwarden TOTP code generation is still paid
not if you self host
They allow it now? Last I checked even self hosted bitwarden needs a license for premium features. You could always use vaultwarden instead if you’re gonna self host.
yes it is vaultwarden that i was thinking of, not bitwarden selfhosted. my bad. i actually just spun up a new vaultwarden last night using docker compose. its got a long list of environment variables but still makes it super easy to set up in a flash
Keepassxc works great for totp on a functional level. Keep in mind that your second factor should ideally be separated from your first, for better security. Otherwise the 2nd factor does not do much if the password database is compromised.
In case people are looking for keepassxc “clients” on android, id recommend keepassdx.
bitwarden now has free otp??
this information got to me ~2h too late. i just switched from authy to 2FAS
Bitwarden premium is worth the money. It’s literally $10/yr.
Host a vaultwarden for free somewhere
You could use BlueStacks. It’s a bit ad laiden, but it’s not bad.
BlueStacks is so fucking heavy though. I only have it so I can view a single camera from my desktop, but it’s amazing how much ram it gobbles up while running.
Hard disagree. They (and most other Android emus) are sketchy as hell, I believe using them for anything authentication related would be dangerous
waydroid, idk if it works on windows, i’ve only used it linux
Your point is so good that I down voted MYSELF. Thanks! I may stop using it now. I used it back when it felt more unshitty, but it’s crept shittier and shittier and it does feel super sketchy now.
VM all the way I suppose.
/Sincere
I almost panicked and thought it was WSL until I got to the Android part. Never knew it was a thing. Still sucks for developers who depended on it.
One of the main reasons I made the switch from 10 to 11 and I used it constantly. I have several services that simply don’t work right from the web interface because of the drm BS. Being able to use the android apps worked great even if side loading an alternative store was a little bit of a pain on initial setup.
I am even more glad I recently made the switch to a 100% Linux environment at home. I have a simple waydroid install and it works much easier and is equally integrated into the desktop experience when compared to WSA. Only hassle is making sure you have a Wayland compositor since it won’t work with x11 but that’s just confirming a configuration essentially so par for the course really.
Regardless, this would be very disappointing if I hadn’t already had an alternative.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Microsoft announced today they will be winding down their support for Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA), which is similar to Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) but was designed to run Android apps from the Amazon Appstore atop Windows 11.
Windows Subsystem for Android hasn’t been as nearly as popular as Windows Subsystem for Linux itself and its scope was limited given the focus on the Amazon Appstore for obtaining Android apps.
Microsoft announced this morning on the WSA page: "Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android™️ (WSA).
As a result, the Amazon Appstore on Windows and all applications and games dependent on WSA will no longer be supported beginning March 5, 2025.
Customers that have installed the Amazon Appstore or Android apps prior to March 5, 2024, will continue to have access to those apps through the deprecation date of March 5, 2025."
This change is only in reference to Windows Subsystem for Android with no apparent changes around Windows Subsystem for Linux that continues to be quite popular for enjoying Linux desktop and CLI apps within the confines of Windows 11, especially among developers and those forced to use Microsoft Windows due to corporate/employer requirements.
The original article contains 232 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 14%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I knew WSL was a thing but had absolutely no idea about WSA.
WSA was.
Comment =TRUE
I hate this. I like wsa and it was one of the main reasons I went to w11. Well… whatever, we can’t have nice things I guess
That was quick
If they hadn’t locked into amazon appstore, I feel like they could have made it work.
Either cough up money for Playstore or better yet just make windows store compatible with android and easier to use.
The Amazon app store is the most mature app store outside of Google Play. It’s not just as simple as converting the Windows store to Android because of course they would need to develop an Android version of every app in the windows store.
I meant just allowing people to publish APKs to the windows store, not converting every app.
Although WSA let you sideload apps anyway so I’m thinking maybe Microsoft just didn’t see any big profit potential which is why they’re shutting down.
TIL there’s an Amazon app store.
Lol. Yeah, they’ve got quite the wall around their garden. It’s hell getting the play store running on their hardware.
I recently discovered Aurora, which allowed me to easily install Firefox on my Fire HD. Lots of other stuff too (better launcher, for instance) but I found it because the web just sucks without Ublock
Have you ever tried using aurora instead of the play store for devices that don’t natively have it?
It works very well, I use it all the time on GrapheneOS
Nope. Never had enough trust. I’d sooner use a website and use virustotal to scan. At least you know what you are getting that way.
I may experiment with it on an expendable device, so thank you all the same.
I mean, Waydroid works fine with Aurorastore and even Playstore. Sure that may break, but all that capitalist “we buy licenses” BS of course costs money
Talk about a “oh no, anyway” moment. I used the feature for about two days, saw no benefit from it, and completely forgot it was even there.
Both expected and unexpected. WSA was a major feature announcement when it was originally released, and M$ isn’t normally like Google when it comes to dropping projects.
Windows Phone, Windows Mobile, Family Room, Zune, Expression. When products don’t create enough revenue they get axed.
While absolutely true, Google has a reputation and history of killing off huge swaths of projects widely adopted by end users, even if they were theoretically profitable.
Nice, I actually used this to make a nice time of reading manga and comics on my surface with tachiyomi. Now I have to find a different workflow.
lol I didn’t realise it had been released
It really hadn’t rolled out across the globe yet, so no, it wasn’t even really released before getting pulled.
Did Microsoft just pull a Google on a Google product? Mind blowing.
Must’ve gotten infected when eating the Android sweets.
Man what in the world are they doing.
Windows Subsystem for Android hasn’t been as nearly as popular as Windows Subsystem for Linux itself and its scope was limited given the focus on the Amazon Appstore for obtaining Android apps.
Sounds like no one was using it.
To the surprise of no one when it was limited by needing to use the Amazon App store
You could side load apps at least.
But I don’t think the type of person who wants to use this feature also would want the Amazon app store installed on their device.
Also, don’t google offer some functionality for testing Android apps in Windows?
Android studio has that.
But android studio sucks. Also it’s just a KVM VM so you can just make your own and save the like 20 gigs of bloat.
Exactly. I decided to check it out a couple weeks ago and needing to install the Amazon app store was an instant nope.
Was going to look into side-loading but I didn’t really have a use case to make it worth my time.
They’re probably doubling their efforts on native ARM apps
Microsoft is working hard at sucking, from what I’ve seen the past few years.
I think they’ll be happy with their OpenAI investment.
Until the AI bubble goes kaplooey
“the internet is just a passing fad”
yearsdecades
