Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority
I own half a dozen computers in various form factors and performance levels, but I recently found myself reaching for my Chromebook more often. Even with its admittedly lackluster performance and meagre 11-inch footprint, it has one killer feature I cannot live without: full-fledged Android app support. Having access to smartphone apps that have no real desktop equivalent is a game-changer, and I’m not just saying that because I write for Android Authority.
Unfortunately, Microsoft sunset its Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) experiment earlier this year, which allowed you to run Android apps on Windows 11. And while Phone Link does still exist, it only allows you to mirror your smartphone’s screen. Moreover, Microsoft still hasn’t enabled screen sharing support for Pixel and the vast majority of other smartphones. So if I want the best of Android on PC, I have to choose between a Chrome OS device or an emulator.
The only problem? Android emulators on PC offer a middling experience at best. The overhead of emulation means you lose performance, and even the best Android emulators like BlueStacks have ads and cluttered interfaces tailored for specific use cases like gaming. By contrast, the experience feels far more seamless on Chrome OS: you can launch individual Android apps and they seamlessly live alongside native apps.
So is there a way to achieve this Android-PC harmony without installing Chrome OS and giving up access to a traditional desktop experience? Yes, but the only caveat is that it requires Linux. Still, I think it’s completely worthwhile and with Microsoft’s increasingly hostile attitude towards privacy on Windows, it’s yet another reason to consider making the switch.
Why I care about running Android apps on PC From my investment portfolio tracker to various smart home apps, there are several reasons why I like having access to Android’s vast app catalog on my computer. Even for services that have a web or desktop equivalent, I often find their Android counterparts plain better. Take WhatsApp for PC as an example — it prevents me from resizing the window exactly how I want it. Specifically, it refuses to scale any smaller than a quarter of my screen, which feels like a pointless waste of real estate.
By comparison, smartphone apps are designed to fill just about any screen size. So if you can find a way to run them on a computer, the window size should be much more flexible. And if you’ve ever tried multitasking on a computer with a single display, you might already see the appeal.
Try opening Google Maps in a web browser and narrowing the window as much as possible (pictured below). You’ll quickly find that the search bar is all you have left — as soon as you click on a business, the sidebar will take up the entire usable space. You simply cannot navigate around the map unless you dismiss this sidebar.
Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority
On the right, you can see how much smaller the windows for the Android versions of Google Maps and WhatsApp can become. I don’t blame Meta or any other developer for this disparity — desktop apps are designed for rational display sizes and my narrower windows don’t exactly fit that expectation.
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