PC World - USA (2021-01)

82 PCWorld JANUARY 2022

F E ATU R E ANDROID ON PC

A

ndroid apps are now available

on Windows 11 (fave.

co/3cdEtj3) as well as on

Chrome OS. Microsoft and

Google use them to expand and enhance the

experience of their respective touchscreen

devices. The hope is that Android apps,

which are designed primarily (and often

entirely) for touch input, can patch up the

holes of each operating system’s mouse-

oriented interface and app selection. Which

operating system offers the best Android app

support? And does either achieve its goal of

enhancing the touchscreen experience?

APP SELECTION

Windows 11 and Chrome OS both support

Android apps but make them available in very

different ways. Windows 11 leans on the

Amazon Appstore, while Google supports its

own Google Play store.

Google Play is essentially the default

Android app store. It comes installed on a

majority of Android devices sold today. The

Amazon Appstore is an alternative from Amazon

for its own devices, such as Kindle tablets.

The gap in app selection is significant.

You’ll find almost 500,000 apps on the

Amazon Appstore, which is a lot, but far

fewer than the nearly 3.5 million apps on the

Google Play store. Apps from large

companies usually make it to the Amazon

Appstore, but smaller developers are less

likely to bother.

This already skews selection in favor of

Chrome OS, but Windows 11 has another

It’s unlikely you won’t find what you’re looking for among the millions of apps in the Google Play store.