Windows 8 was supposed to be good with tablets, but while you got the [somewhat horrible] tablet start menu, touch-friendly apps were almost non-existent. The Win10 store that was supposed to fix that obviously failed, so when Microsoft got Android apps working in Win10 early on, it was cause for great hope. But then Microsoft canceled the project. Now that they've resurrected it, I'm trying to figure out why &/or how it matters. The only thing I've come up with so far is for their Expensive Surface line of tablets, because you need a new & fairly high end tablet to use it -- new because Win11, somewhat higher end because you're running a VM that takes at a minimum a constant 1GB of RAM. I left out PCs & laptops, because while they're *usually* more capable, the need for touch-friendly just isn't there. I *thought* I might have come up with an exception, since most video streaming apps are Not available for Windows, but so far at least, it looks like that would be just too much work.
I've read that Microsoft uses the Amazon App Store because it relies on open source rather than anything Google. It is possible to side load apps that aren't in the Windows Amazon App Store, but when I successfully installed the HBOMax app, I found that it needs Google play features to run. It was a bit of work to get HBOMax installed, but the workaround to get those Play services running takes it to a whole nuther level...
neowin[.]net/news/developer-creates-hack-to-run-google-play-store-on-windows-11/
I give Windows Central credit for the explanation or how to for side loading apps, but I'm not linking to their article because some of the info they posted just doesn't agree with what I've experienced. The 1st step, which may be the hardest, is to get the apk file for the app you want to side load [an apk file is what Android uses for app installation]. Neither the Google or Amazon app stores will let you just download an apk file -- you can install *compatible* apps from the Amazon store if you have an Amazon device or install the Android app Amazon has for that purpose, and you can install apps from the Google Play Store if you have a device that Google's allowed to be enrolled in their services. There are [often questionable] ways to download an apk, but the easiest way to get your hands on one is by installing & using an app that will backup an installed Android app as an apk. I used one of my wife's Kindle tablets because I *thought* the HBOMax app from the Amazon store *might* be more compatible, since Win11's Android capabilities are based on that store's apps. Finding a backup app in the Amazon App Store however proved challenging, & once I found an app that might work, I had to deal with compatibility, since no candidate would work with every one of my wife's kindles. Nonetheless, I eventually wound up with the HBOMax apk on my PC's hard disk.
The next step is to download the SDK Platform-Tools for Windows here: developer.android[.]com/studio/releases/platform-tools
Unzip that ~12MB download in whatever folder you like, but note that you'll be using the Windows command line interface, so the simpler the path you have to type, the easier it'll be. Now start up the Amazon app store in Win11 to get the Android subsystem fired up, then close the store. The settings page for that subsystem isn't in Settings [for some reason], so you have to either search or scroll down the Start Menu for Windows Subsystem for Android -- once it opens you want to turn on Developer Mode. Now open the Command Prompt running as admin. -- either search, or in Win11 you'll find it under Windows Tools [it opens a window not unlike Control Panel] in the Start Menu or using File Explorer.
At the Command Prompt, navigate to the folder where you unzipped those Platform Tools earlier, in my case I used cd\temp\platformtools -- I named those folders to keep it quick & easy. Now go back to that Android subsystem settings window and click the button to copy the IP address, then at the Command Prompt type "adb connect [IP address]" -- without quotes, pasting the copied IP address for [IP address]. Now type "adb install [YourAPK]" -- without quotes, using the file name for the apk you want to install instead of [YourAPK].
And you're done (!). You'll find you Android app in the Start Menu.
