The feature of running Android applications is the most liked feature by users when Microsoft announced Windows 11, as the user no longer needs to install an Android emulator to access all the applications of the most popular operating system for smartphones. Unfortunately, the company postponed the launch of the feature with the final version of Windows 11, which was released in early October, which caused some dissatisfaction. But recently, it has become possible to try this feature by subscribing to the beta program for Windows versions, or by reading our previous topic about activating the feature of installing Android applications on Windows 11 now, even if you are using the stable version. But aside from all that, don't you want to know how these apps originally work on Windows?.
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| Can Windows 11 run Android apps directly? |
How to run Android apps on Windows 11
First, let's talk about how applications work in general, and in order not to misunderstand me, here I am not talking about Windows applications or executable files (EXE) specifically, but I am talking about executable files on different operating systems, such as each run. The system can handle application files in another way and also in another format, for example, you can't install Windows programs in EXE format on macOS because the latter only accepts DMG files or the same with Android, it can read applications in the form of an executable file in APK or XAPK, while if you try to run this file on Windows, you will get “unknown file type” message. That is, each operating system is determined by the type of applications it can run. Thus, Android applications cannot be run on Windows directly, rather it requires an intermediary.
For a long time, emulators like BlueStacks were often the only "medium" for running Android apps inside Windows. But the way emulators are different from the way Windows 11 runs Android apps. The emulator creates a virtual environment for Android apps to run in. In fact, the name Emulator came about because it actually "simulates" an Android device inside a Windows PC. But the problem with the way the emulator works is that it takes a lot of resources, which puts pressure on the computer and makes the operation slower, especially if your device has limited capabilities.
Run Android apps on a PC
So to make Android apps run smoothly inside Windows 11, Microsoft had to do it another way than by emulating. The alternative method is a technology from Intel called Bridge Technology.
To understand what this technology does, you should first know about the term "compiler", which is a program that tells the computer what to do with the code of the application/program. Without this converter, the operating system treats application code as if it were a document written in a foreign language. So the job of the operating system's built-in compiler is to compile this "document" and put it into a package that the computer can understand so it knows it's an installable program. This package at the end is the executable file which is in EXE, APK, or DMG format.
Bridge Technology, its function here is to recompile the application code so that it can be run on another platform, meaning if the application code is programmed to read-only on the Android system, the technology reformulates the same code to make it readable on the Windows system. This is the job of Intel technology in a nutshell, just recompiling the code with everything you need to run the app in Windows 11, i.e. linking native Android functionality to native Windows functionality.
Of course, the "translator" job that this technology performs is very complex, but fortunately, Android app developers don't need to do anything on their end to run their apps on Windows, the technology handles the entire conversion process. This means that any Android app can actually run inside Windows 11. Not all apps may work perfectly, but Windows will be able to run them as if they were EXE files.
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If we discover that how Intel Bridge Technology works differs from emulators, although they share the same task: running Android applications on Windows. The idea is simply that Intel technology runs Android apps in Windows, just like regular Windows programs, without having to create a virtual environment for Android. It works to bring the "synthesis" in which Android understands application code alongside their Windows counterparts. As a result, the device will not waste a lot of its resources to run applications.
But Intel technology alone is not enough, an easy way to obtain and install Android applications must be provided, and here comes Microsoft's cooperation with Amazon to bring the Amazon Appstore within Windows 11 so that the Microsoft Store is for Windows applications and the Amazon Store is for Android applications, through which you can download and install Android applications with all It is as easy as if you were installing an application on the phone from Google Play, with one click, the application will be downloaded and installed, and you can download the APK files of the applications and install them manually as well, we will review how this is done step by step in another article. But that's all you need to know about how Android apps work on Windows 11.
