Running Android Apps on the Windows Phone ten Preview
Verify your device will support the Windows Phone ten Preview and commence installing your Android apps to test.
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Depending on who you talk to, one of the coolest parts of the fresh Windows Phone OS coming to devices in the next few months is the capability to run Android apps. Yes, you heard me correctly: You will be able to run Android apps on your Windows Phone ten device. With the preview releases coming out on a regular basis lately it’s good to see we’re getting a little bit closer to having this capability in everyone’s palms soon, but in the meantime the question truly is: How do I get to attempt this now?
Getting Your Device Setup
The very first thing you’re going to have to do is get setup with Windows Phone Ten.
- HTC One (M8) for Windows
- Lumia 430
- Lumia 435
- Lumia 520
- Lumia 521
- Lumia 525
- Lumia 526
- Lumia 530
- Lumia 532
- Lumia 535
- Lumia 540
- Lumia 620
- Lumia 625
- Lumia 630
- Lumia 635
- Lumia 636
- Lumia 638
- Lumia 640
- Lumia six hundred forty XL
- Lumia 720
- Lumia 730
- Lumia 735
- Lumia 810
- Lumia 820
- Lumia 822
- Lumia 830
- Lumia 920
- Lumia 925
- Lumia 928
- Lumia 930
- Lumia 1020
- Lumia 1320
- Lumia 1520
- Lumia Icon
If you’re fortunate enough to have a supported device the next step is to simply go after this guide and download the Windows Insider app to upgrade your phone to Windows Phone Ten.
It takes a while to install, but don’t worry about me, I’ll just sit here and wait for you…
Note: Windows Phone ten is a preview operating system. It’s not 100% stable, may behave strangely/delete your data and isn’t generally recommended for everyday usage.
Turning Developer Mode On
Once you’ve got Windows Phone ten up and running on your device.
You’ll want to then open up your settings app on the phone, and search for “developer mode”. Which should come back the developer mode settings screen.
Select “developer mode” and turn on discovery.
Download the Side-Loader
In order to side-load Android APKs onto your phone you’ll need to download and install a Microsoft internal application called APKTOW10M available from here.
Once you’ve installed the app, launch it and connect your phone via USB.
On your phone, with the above developer screen open, click “Pair” to connect it to your desktop device. Your phone will give you a code – inject it into the text box of the APKTOWIN10M app. This will permanently pair your desktop and laptop.
Now you’re ready to install an Android app on your Windows Phone.
Installing Apps
To install an Android app on your Windows Phone ten device you’ll need to grab yourself an APK (the Android package format) of your favourite app so that you can side explosion it.
Android has a pretty well known reputation for app piracy, so if you look hard enough this shouldn’t be too hard to find the app of your choice.
For people like you and I who respect the hard work that goes into developing apps, you can grab yourself some open source apps over at F-Droid https://f-droid.org/
Find an example app that you’d like to attempt out, and download the APK. In my example i’m going to be side-loading the Acrylic Paint app.
Drag-and-drop the app onto the APKTOW10M app, and click install.
Once accomplish, switch over to your phone and you should see the fresh app in your “Recently added” list.
Final Thoughts
When this feature was very first announced, a number of commentators such as Paul Thurott said that this feature was a bit of a death spiral stir for Windows Phone.
After using Android apps on Windows Phone tho’ I’m not so sure if I agree. In general I’ve loved using Windows Phone for a number of years as my “daily driver” device simply because in my opinion it “works better” when it comes to getting stuff done; total office, a excellent version of outlook mobile and always packaged with some good hardware on the flagship devices such as my current Lumia 930.
Having Android apps on my phone has just made it better as I have the awesomeness of Windows Phone’s OS, with the extra support of any of the apps I may not have had previously. I’m hoping that this only does good things for Windows Phone in the future. As someone who actively switched from an iPhone and stayed I can say that it’s a fine ecosystem, that seems to simply have had less love than it is worth – here’s hoping the addition of Android apps is able to provide some of this long missed user affection.
.Net developers: use Highcharts, the industry’s leading interactive charting library, without writing a single line of JavaScript.
Running Android Apps on the Windows Phone ten Preview – DZone Mobile
Running Android Apps on the Windows Phone ten Preview
Verify your device will support the Windows Phone ten Preview and embark installing your Android apps to test.
Join the DZone community and get the utter member practice.
Get gorgeous, multi-touch charts for your iOS application with just a few lines of code.
Depending on who you talk to, one of the coolest parts of the fresh Windows Phone OS coming to devices in the next few months is the capability to run Android apps. Yes, you heard me correctly: You will be able to run Android apps on your Windows Phone ten device. With the preview releases coming out on a regular basis lately it’s good to see we’re getting a little bit closer to having this capability in everyone’s mitts soon, but in the meantime the question truly is: How do I get to attempt this now?
Getting Your Device Setup
The very first thing you’re going to have to do is get setup with Windows Phone Ten.
- HTC One (M8) for Windows
- Lumia 430
- Lumia 435
- Lumia 520
- Lumia 521
- Lumia 525
- Lumia 526
- Lumia 530
- Lumia 532
- Lumia 535
- Lumia 540
- Lumia 620
- Lumia 625
- Lumia 630
- Lumia 635
- Lumia 636
- Lumia 638
- Lumia 640
- Lumia six hundred forty XL
- Lumia 720
- Lumia 730
- Lumia 735
- Lumia 810
- Lumia 820
- Lumia 822
- Lumia 830
- Lumia 920
- Lumia 925
- Lumia 928
- Lumia 930
- Lumia 1020
- Lumia 1320
- Lumia 1520
- Lumia Icon
If you’re fortunate enough to have a supported device the next step is to simply go after this guide and download the Windows Insider app to upgrade your phone to Windows Phone Ten.
It takes a while to install, but don’t worry about me, I’ll just sit here and wait for you…
Note: Windows Phone ten is a preview operating system. It’s not 100% stable, may behave strangely/delete your data and isn’t generally recommended for everyday usage.
Turning Developer Mode On
Once you’ve got Windows Phone ten up and running on your device.
You’ll want to then open up your settings app on the phone, and search for “developer mode”. Which should come back the developer mode settings screen.
Select “developer mode” and turn on discovery.
Download the Side-Loader
In order to side-load Android APKs onto your phone you’ll need to download and install a Microsoft internal application called APKTOW10M available from here.
Once you’ve installed the app, launch it and connect your phone via USB.
On your phone, with the above developer screen open, click “Pair” to connect it to your desktop device. Your phone will give you a code – inject it into the text box of the APKTOWIN10M app. This will permanently pair your desktop and laptop.
Now you’re ready to install an Android app on your Windows Phone.
Installing Apps
To install an Android app on your Windows Phone ten device you’ll need to grab yourself an APK (the Android package format) of your favourite app so that you can side stream it.
Android has a pretty well known reputation for app piracy, so if you look hard enough this shouldn’t be too hard to find the app of your choice.
For people like you and I who respect the hard work that goes into developing apps, you can grab yourself some open source apps over at F-Droid https://f-droid.org/
Find an example app that you’d like to attempt out, and download the APK. In my example i’m going to be side-loading the Acrylic Paint app.
Drag-and-drop the app onto the APKTOW10M app, and click install.
Once accomplish, switch over to your phone and you should see the fresh app in your “Recently added” list.
Final Thoughts
When this feature was very first announced, a number of commentators such as Paul Thurott said that this feature was a bit of a death spiral budge for Windows Phone.
After using Android apps on Windows Phone tho’ I’m not so sure if I agree. In general I’ve loved using Windows Phone for a number of years as my “daily driver” device simply because in my opinion it “works better” when it comes to getting stuff done; utter office, a fine version of outlook mobile and always packaged with some fine hardware on the flagship devices such as my current Lumia 930.
Having Android apps on my phone has just made it better as I have the awesomeness of Windows Phone’s OS, with the extra support of any of the apps I may not have had previously. I’m hoping that this only does good things for Windows Phone in the future. As someone who actively switched from an iPhone and stayed I can say that it’s a superb ecosystem, that seems to simply have had less love than it is worth – here’s hoping the addition of Android apps is able to provide some of this long missed user affection.
.Net developers: use Highcharts, the industry’s leading interactive charting library, without writing a single line of JavaScript.