Microsoft revealed at Build that the Windows Subsystem for Android, which allows users to run Android apps on Windows 11, will be available in five more markets later this year.

WSA, which is currently only available in the United States, will soon be available in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

The Windows Subsystem for Android was introduced at the same event as Windows 11 on June 24, 2021, but it didn’t become live until earlier this year.

Microsoft teamed with Amazon to bring the Amazon Appstore to Windows 11, bringing the majority of the Amazon Appstore’s apps to Windows 11.

While Android apps are officially only available in the United States, installing the Windows Subsystem for Android if you’re in another nation is rather simple.

You may easily buy it via the Microsoft Store if you update your region settings in Windows. The bigger difficulty is getting the Amazon Appstore to work outside of the US, as it only works with Amazon accounts based in the US.

Thankfully, sideloading Android apps on Windows 11 is simple enough that you won’t need the Amazon Appstore if you’re ready to experiment.

Nonetheless, this development indicates that Android apps will be more easily accessible to a wider range of consumers, resulting in increased overall adoption.

If the platform becomes more popular, more apps will likely migrate to it, making the platform more valuable as a whole. That’s good news for Microsoft and Amazon, which sells Fire tablets with the Amazon Appstore pre-installed rather than the Google Play Store.

The Windows Subsystem for Android now runs version 12.1 of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which is the equivalent of Android 12L, according to Microsoft’s remarks at Build today.

This isn’t entirely new, as the update was only sent out to Windows Insiders last week. Aside from an upgraded version of Android, the latest version of WSA also contains greater Windows integration, such as support for sophisticated networking capabilities, improved notifications, and more.