Microsoft officially ends project to port Android apps to Windows 10

Microsoft officially ends project Astoria, which aimed to port Android apps to the Windows platform. Astoria was one of four Bridge projects. The company is continuing its project to bring iOS apps to Windows 10.

Microsoft announces the discontinuation of Astoria in an update on the four Bridge projects. “We’ve received a lot of feedback and to have two Bridge techniques to bring code from mobile operating systems to Windows was unnecessary and the choice could be confusing,” writes Kevin Gallo, group program manager at Microsoft.

Microsoft is therefore focusing on Project Islandwood, or the Bridge for iOS. The company recommends developers planning to port their apps to Windows, look to the iOS bridge, and Xamarin. The Xamarin Platform makes it possible to develop apps in C# that run natively on iOS, Android, Mac and Windows. Microsoft has acquired Xamarin.

Last November it was noticed that it was very quiet around Project Astoria. At the time, it was rumored that it required too much manpower at Microsoft and that it yielded too little. Project Astoria allowed developers to port Android apps to a limited extent: only to Windows 10 Mobile thanks to an Android runtime layer in that OS and it didn’t work with every app. In the other projects, Microsoft wants to port old Windows programs to the new platform and integrate web apps into Windows 10.

More about the four Bridge projects in the background article Windows as a universal app platform.