Google is moving away from using Android APKs in the Google Play Store in August, and this might make sideloading Android apps in Windows 11 a bit harder.
Running Android apps via the Amazon App store is one of the biggest features of Microsoft’s new Windows 11 operating system, but Google might have just complicated things a bit. In a change of policy, Google is requiring app developers to embrace the new Android App Bundle standard, and move away from the APK file format that otherwise could have been used to sideload Android apps in Windows 11. Although the change only applies to new apps listed on the Google Play Store starting August 2021 (and not third-party or private apps,) Google runs through some important notes in its announcement of the change. The first of those is that the new Android App Bundle format will replace APK as the standard publishing format.
