Skip to main content

Microsoft’s ‘bridge’ to bring Android apps to Windows has officially been axed

microsoft
drserg/123rf
At Microsoft’s Build conference last year, the company announced four of what it called “bridges” to help developers bring applications to the Windows Store. Project Centennial would help with porting Win32 and .NET apps, while Project Westminster would help developers port Web apps to the store. Project Islandwood and Project Astoria would help developers port iOS and Android apps, respectively.

While Microsoft has continued to tout Project Islandwood over the last year, mention of Project Astoria seemed to be conspicuously absent, aside from an announcement in November that it had been delayed. Now in an update on the Windows Blog, the company has officially announced that the project has been given the axe.

“We received a lot of feedback that having two Bridge technologies to bring code from mobile operating systems to Windows was unnecessary, and the choice between them could be confusing,” Microsoft’s Kevin Gallow wrote. “We have carefully considered this feedback and decided that we would focus our efforts on the Windows Bridge for iOS and make it the single Bridge option for bringing mobile code to all Windows 10 devices, including Xbox and PCs.”

Microsoft will now focus on improving the iOS Bridge instead, and is urging developers to use this to port their apps. Astoria was essentially an emulator — albeit one that apparently didn’t work very well — while Islandwood helps developers modify their Objective C code and compile it for the Windows Store. This move makes sense for Microsoft, as most major Android apps also likely have an iOS version, but for Android-only developers this isn’t really an option. Of course, that isn’t all there is to the story.

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced that it would acquire Xamarin, a company focused on providing cross-platform development tools, for an undisclosed amount. Xamarin’s tools allow developers to port applications written in C# to iOS and Android. So while existing Android apps still can’t be easily ported to Windows, since Xamarin allows large pieces of a project’s code base to be reused, it helps developers target Windows, iOS, and Android at the same time, with only relatively minimal changes required for each platform.

Fairly well known companies like the now-defunct Rdio and even Microsoft itself have used Xamarin to target multiple platforms, and Microsoft’s acquisition of the company shows that it considers this technology important to its mobile future. The continuation of the Project Islandwood iOS Bridge shows that the company hasn’t totally given up on courting iOS developers, but the real hope for Microsoft likely lies in Windows being included as a target platform from the very start of the development of a new app.

Making that process as easy as possible is very much in the company’s interest, even if that means a few Android-only developers won’t be bringing their apps to the Windows Store anytime soon.

Editors' Recommendations

Kris Wouk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…
New ways Microsoft is enticing developers to use Windows app store
Microsoft Store Ads on a Dell XPS Laptop.

The Microsoft Build 2022 conference is now underway through Thursday and the brand is revealing a host of updates to its app store in particular.

The Microsoft Store will soon feature Microsoft Store Ads, which will be powered by Microsoft Advertising. The brand said the upcoming feature will allow developers to market their apps to the proper users and highlight new experiences to users. Microsoft said it will soon begin a pilot program for developers to design ad campaigns within Microsoft Advertising. Currently, developers can sign up for the Microsoft Store Ads waitlist.

Read more
This is how Android 13 looks on Windows 11
The under display fingerprint scanner of the Google Pixel 6.

Many tech brands are currently sharing previews of their upcoming software. Microsoft's Windows 11 is in its final stages of Windows Insider previews before the public build is released. Google recently shared the first developer preview of its Android 13 software. Now, developers are showing what it looks like when you blend the two.

Android web and app developer Danny Lin showcased his porting skills by running Windows 11 on his Google Pixel 6 via a virtual machine, after having updated the device to Android 13 Developer Preview 1.

Read more
Google now has its own way of making Android phones and Windows more compatible
The Your Phone app on an Android phone.

If you own an Android phone and a Windows PC, you'll soon have one more way to use both devices together to get more done. Rolling out later this year to Windows is a Fast Pair feature for Android phones.

Google's announcement at CES 2022 comes alongside a number of improvements on how Android devices can connect to your larger ecosystem of tech products.

Read more