Windows 11 brought support for Android apps, allowing people to easily install and run Android apps on a Windows PC. With an aim to further improve the capability, Microsoft has now released an update for the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA), which has brought in a number of new features and updated the WSA to Android 12.1. Here are the details.
New Windows 11 WSA Update Released
The new update, version 2204.40000.15.0, has updated the WSA to Android 12.1 aka Android 12L, which will further improve the whole experience. Apart from an update to Android 12.1, the Windows Subsystem for Android has also received a number of features and changes.
First up, the Windows Subsystem for Android’s settings app has been overhauled. The redesign includes clearer settings groups, grouped navigation, and a cleaner user experience. It also has a new diagnostic data viewer to analyze the diagnostic data and configuration options to enable fixes for various apps.
The telemetry diagnostic setting will now be turned off by default. The setting provides telemetry of Android app usage and you can always enable it if this information is important to you. This update has also introduced improved networking so that it’s easier for apps to connect to devices sharing the network connection as the Windows PC.
Integration between Windows and Android apps has also been improved with the new update. Now, Windows taskbar icons will show what Android apps use the microphone, location, and other system services, much like on Android and iOS. Plus, there will be an auto-hidden taskbar to show or hide Android apps that are running. This is available for Windows 11 Insiders using builds 22621 and higher.
The camera in Android apps and the input device support have also been improved. Other than this, the new WSA update brings in a slew of fixes and more changes. Here’s a look at the entire changelog here.
The new WSA update 2204.40000.15.0 can be downloaded via the Microsoft Store for people who are enrolled in the Insiders program. This should reach all users eventually, but we don’t know when this will happen. We will let you know about this, so stay tuned.
