Microsoft Windows Astoria bridge for Android is dead

A recent blog post from the VP of Windows Developer Platform, Kevin Gallo, suggests that Microsoft’s compatibility layer for Android apps is dead.

Dubbed Astoria, the Android bridge was one of four that Microsoft announced at its Build conference in April 2015.

These bridges were intended to let developers port their web, .NET and Win32, Android, and iOS/Mac applications to Windows 10.

“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,” Gallo wrote.

Microsoft has decided to focus on the Islandwood bridge for iOS apps, and make it the single bridge option for bringing mobile code to all Windows 10 devices, including Xbox and PCs.

“For those developers who spent time investigating the Android Bridge, we strongly encourage you to take a look at the iOS Bridge and Xamarin as great solutions.”

Early controversy

Both the iOS Islandwood bridge and the Astoria bridge for Android caused a stir among Windows developers when they launched.

Islandwood required the app developer to write code to support Microsoft’s Universal Windows Platform (UWP), while Astoria allowed Android apps to run on Windows as-is.

Developers saw this as an affront, as it invalidated their investment in UWP.

Ars Technica reported that Microsoft may salvage some of its work on Astoria, with newer Windows 10 builds for the desktop including updated versions of the Astoria kernel modules.

More on Windows 10 app bridges

Android support for Windows 10 Mobile delayed, perhaps forever

Windows 10 can get Android, iOS, Mac apps