Microsoft may be looking to run Android apps on Windows

Microsoft has been embracing open source software heavily as of late, especially the Linux Core OS, on which most development tools run. This has led to it creating a new version of Windows which comes with a Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) included in it, allowing developers to run Linux commands and programs directly from their Windows machine.

According to a new report on Windows Central, Microsoft may just be getting started and is looking at Google’s Android OS for its next project. Titled Project Latte, the idea is to include a core Android operating system directly within Windows, and allow it to function much the same way that the currently Linux kernel operates.

The reason for this is that Microsoft is aware of the massive popularity of Android apps and wants people to be able to run Android apps directly from their PCs too, making it a lot easier for apps across multiple platforms to be integrated rather than just developing for Windows exclusively.

This after Microsoft recently announced that WSL will soon get support for GUI Linux applications, as well as GPU acceleration which should aid the performance of apps running through WSL and make it more attractive for developers to use.

It is unlikely at the moment that should Project Latte come to fruition that it will include support for Play Services, as Google doesn’t allow them to be installed on anything other than native Android devices and Chrome OS. Microsoft will intend for these apps to be operated from their own App Store. This means that apps that require Play Service APIs will need to be updated to remove those dependencies before they can be submitted on Windows 10, so there may still need to be some work for developers to enable this.

It is an interesting new strategy from Microsoft who appears to be embracing the strengths of its biggest operating system competitors, transforming Windows into a service that embraces all of the different software systems.

And in the process becoming the only OS that people will need. A smart move, though it will be interesting to see exactly how much support it will get for this new approach.

Last Updated: December 1, 2020