Windows 11 will support Android apps natively

[AndresT]

Dear guys, with this new integration of android on windows 11, please please add support for the new Windows 😭

[John Titor]

So what's making the headlines in the tech news is that Windows 11 which will be launched later this year, will have Android apps support. Users will be able to download and install android apps through Amazon app store (no, there is no desktop Google Play Store, yet).

Well a lot of functions in Android apps depend on touch inputs, they might not work well on a computer.

 

So let's cut to the chase, would Poweramp be supported on a device running on Windows 11 as an "Android app"? That would mean optimizing Poweramp for x86_64 CPUs, along with other input optimizations.

[andrewilley]

I missed that bit in the Windows 11 news, I assume they are basically integrating an Android emulator into the core Windows product. Several steps on from the app screen mirroring concept in Your Phone at the moment. I guess it depends on how good that integration is as to whether apps like Poweramp, with specialist support for high-res/etc features, will be.

Andre

[MotleyG]

3 hours ago, John Titor said:

So what's making the headlines in the tech news is that Windows 11 which will be launched later this year, will have Android apps support. Users will be able to download and install android apps through Amazon app store (no, there is no desktop Google Play Store, yet).

Well a lot of functions in Android apps depend on touch inputs, they might not work well on a computer.

 

So let's cut to the chase, would Poweramp be supported on a device running on Windows 11 as an "Android app"? That would mean optimizing Poweramp for x86_64 CPUs, along with other input optimizations.

Kind of putting the cart before the horse. No actual release dates mentioned for Win11. Their vision of “Android apps support” may not be what we all want as a truly integrated platform. Let’s see what MS delivers, then we will know what the chances are for getting PA live on a Windows platform.

[John Titor]

6 hours ago, andrewilley said:

I guess it depends on how good that integration is as to whether apps like Poweramp, with specialist support for high-res/etc features, will be.

Good point, Poweramp is currently optimized for the Android ecosystem, features like Hi-res and proper sound processing would probably require a code rewrite rather than working "out of the box". And it would still depend on how much Windows would let Android apps utilize the hardware capabilities.

4 hours ago, MotleyG said:

Kind of putting the cart before the horse. No actual release dates mentioned for Win11.

Yeah I kinda got over-enthusiastic. Even though there is still a chance that advanced applications won't function as intended, I think apps like Tiktok and WhatsApp will do great on Windows 11. 

[andrewilley]

41 minutes ago, John Titor said:

I think apps like Tiktok and WhatsApp will do great on Windows 11. 

What'sApp would need to change its authentication process to allow it to function on multiple devices with no phone number before that could work (although I think that is something they are planning).

Andre

[Farid Zelli]

As many of you may have heard, Microsoft has made it official that Windows 11 will be featuring almost-native Android app compatibility, where the OS libraries will be available and apps will be executed natively on a hardware level, similar to how Linux on Windows currently works. You can find more info about this on Microsoft's website and a simplified introduction at the following article:

https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/24/22548428/microsoft-windows-11-android-apps-support-amazon-store

 

As you can see, there is very little work required to get Poweramp running on Windows 11

The development process would most likely be:

 

1) Port Poweramp over to the Amazon App store

2) Do some optimization to make sure it can communicate directly with the host system's audio driver

 

Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day!

Edited June 25, 2021 by andrewilley
Merged into existing thread

[MotleyG]

There are already 2 other threads started for this now. While the enthusiasm is likely to continue for some time, I would still think it will take time and effort for Max to make changes before it could even be stable on the Windows platform. There are far more hardware and display configurations to deal with.

[John Titor]

13 hours ago, andrewilley said:

What'sApp would need to change its authentication process to allow it to function on multiple devices with no phone number before that could work (although I think that is something they are planning).

Andre

Well there is something called WhatsApp Web, basically a user interface of WhatsApp on a PC browser. I was thinking they would do something similar after Windows 11 news is officially released. 

[andrewilley]

1 hour ago, John Titor said:

Well there is something called WhatsApp Web

Yes, but all that does is provide a Windows front-end to a WhatsApp installation that's already running on a phone on the same LAN. It works well, but WhatsApp itself is still only operating on one device (with an associated phone number). There is a Windows app version as well as the web browser version, but they both do basically the same thing.

For WhatsApp to genuinely run independently on a PC in this new emulator mode would require them to move away from the device-phone-number tied model.

Andre

[Absinthequ]

I don't really think anything would need to be modified in Poweramp. The Emulators that currently exist work with Poweramp just fine. Windows would have to build into their emulator drivers that simulate a generic android sound device that most Android apps would recognize and that you could select in Poweramp. It would simply pass through Poweramp selecting an already supported (simulated sound device) to your default sound card that does all of the work? You either have a Hi-Res sound card or you don't. In Amazon Music Unlimited, Tidal and Spotify I just select which device I want to output to, and I then change my sound card settings to 16bit/24bit/44/48/96/192 or whatever I want and that's the quality I get.

I have an emulator but never really cared to see how it handles sound quality, I'll look at and see.

[Edit] I haven't used my emulator for Poweramp in forever. So I have a really old version of Bluestacks and Poweramp 589. It won't let me update to 905 to see how Hi-Res works. I played a 24bit/48kHz song with no issues. It played it at 16bit/44kHz though. So not sure if that's the Bluestacks emulator or the really old version of Poweramp. Neither of them has selectable Audio settings.

I really wanted to use the emulator so i could work out all of the tagging bugs on the PC and preview in Poweramp before sending to my phone. Unfortunately the Emulators required the music library to be in "Documents" which is bleh. I keep my files SSD and my OS SSD isolated so things run smoother. If the new Windows 11 allows me to select any storage location and Poweramp runs smoothly (regardless of audio quality) I will definitely upgrade.

Edited June 27, 2021 by Absinthequ

[haddy]

So many Poweramp fans for years have wanted a desktop port. Whether it be Mac or PC Microsoft. I guess  good things do come to those who wait! Lol

 

Microsoft fully know that the global computing market has moved to the two dominant smartphone OS's and since Android is open-source this is the right step for them to make in order to secure their brand's survival.

[snuggleton]

Edit: I was struggling copying the APK from my phone to my computer before I noticed there are downloads hosted right here on the site. That’s marvelous! Can’t wait to start experimenting.

Another edit: I didn’t get very far! Unfortunately the Windows file system isn’t exposed to the Android subsystem. Hopefully they fix that soon.

[ElJoah]

Perdón por responder en español pero hay traductor:

-Actualmente, se puede instalar Poweramp en Windows 11 con el Subsistema de Windows para Android. Pero teniendo que instalar un entorno de subsistema custom no oficial manualmente cito aquí:

https://github.com/MustardChef/WSABuilds

Con ello, obtenemos el mismo resultado que con bluestacks u otro programa de virtualización de Android en Windows, pero con la ventaja de que esta todo mas integrado en el sistema y se obtiene mejor rendimiento.

No es para nada recomendable si quieres aprovechar salidas de Hi Res. Yo no he podido subirlo de 48 Khz 16 bits pero es normal, no instale el subsistema con root. Tal vez con root se puede forzar.

Pero el ecualizador funciona y el DVC a medias, ya que no podrá actuar fuera de la máquina virtual android.

Dejo evidencias por aquí, yo lo tengo instalado como reproductor en mi PC para usar unos wagner sg, obviamente, a 48 khz 16 bits como dije.

[Fitzian]

Oh for crying out loud ...

WSA is going goodbye (march 2025).

Edited March 5 by Fitzian

[MotleyG]

1 minute ago, Fitzian said:

Oh for crying out loud ...

WSA is going goodbye (march 2025).

Well that didn't take long. Obviously either too much work to support it, or not enough user demand to substantiate further development.

[ElJoah]

7 hours ago, Fitzian said:

Oh for crying out loud ...

WSA is going goodbye (march 2025).

Aprovechemos mientras dure... va de maravilla!