I do most of my digital game playing on tablets or mobile phones: Android, iPhones, and iPads. I have never owned a game console, although I have played games on an Xbox.

My Amazon Fire TV module had a game controller awhile back, but I never used it.

Once upon a time, I did play a few games on early Windows pc’s.

In 2023, I experimented with the Android implementation on Windows 11 created by the Amazon – Microsoft partnership. The Amazon Appstore Preview on Windows 11 was teased in 2022.

Good News Arrives

In October of 2022, I received an email from the Amazon App Store saying: "Good news - at least one of your apps is included in Amazon Appstore on Windows 11 developer preview, expanding your reach to hundreds of millions of new users." Hmm.

I did not ask for any of my apps to be added, so I was flattered that one of the Quikthinking Software titles was selected. Amazon explained how to find the app they selected on their developer console, but I never could find the one that they branded "Windows 11 included" in their portal!

March of 2023 brought this communication from Amazon: "Good news - your app catalog is eligible to be included in Amazon Appstore on Windows 11 developer preview." OK.

The Windows Subsystem for Android

It was also necessary to download and install "The Windows Subsystem for Android" on my Windows 11 laptop. This was a headache. After installation I did watch some game trailers and was intrigued.

The platform seemed to have potential, but following much thought, I realized there was a huge investment of time that would be needed to change our apps for Windows 11 Android.

Despite promises, it seemed that very few Amazon Android apps would be 100% compatible out of the box to work inside of the Windows 11 subsystem.

I concluded that there would not be a global rush to embrace Android on Windows 11, so I deleted the Windows Subsystem for Android from my laptop.

The real test for me came at the end of 2022, when I tried as an experiment to submit one of our newest apps to the Amazon Windows 11 app store. When your Google Play and Apple App Store approved app is flying fine, you have high hopes for Windows 11 inclusion.

Unfortunately, the app was not approved for the Amazon Windows 11 club. Normally when your app has an issue, you make the changes and work with the app store in question to implement a fix. The requested changes meant a major overhaul.

Goodbye, but is it Farewell?

I had a feeling that the Amazon – Windows 11 bromance was not going to last. I did not follow through on my submission and cancelled it.

In early March, 2024, this note arrived from Amazon: "Amazon Appstore on Windows 11 will no longer be supported after March 5, 2025."

On the Amazon App Store Developer blog, additional information was provided. "Starting March 6, 2024, customers will no longer have the ability to install new apps. They will still have access to previously-installed apps."

Did you even notice or know? The vast majority of our app downloads come from Google Play and The Apple App Store.

So the Amazon Android – Windows 11 experiment failed. As the Amazon update on their developer blog states: "Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA), Amazon Appstore on Windows 11."

From my developer perspective, one must be cautious when jumping into new digital territory. This one adventure just wasn't worth it for me. I'm glad I made the right choice!