Windows 11 will receive Android applications next month

Panos Panay, director of products for Windows devices, explained the upcoming changes to Windows 11 in a blog post. It appears to be part of the first major update to the operating system.

Bannai oversees the development of Surface products and related devices, as well as the Windows operating system.

Taskbar enhancements include turning sound off and on, and possibly the ability to display the clock on secondary screens.

These features were not present at the launch of Windows 11. However, Microsoft is still working on improving the taskbar to bring back missing features such as drag and drop.

The operating system also includes a weather widget that returns to the taskbar, something Microsoft began testing last month.

Microsoft is also redesigning the Notepad and Media Player applications. Both offer dark modes and design changes that closely match Windows 11.

Android apps are the big news. Panay says the test is in the form of a public preview, noting that the feature remains in beta when it becomes widely available next month.

Microsoft began testing cross-platform Android apps with testers in October. The feature allows you to install a limited number of apps from Amazon's Appstore.

There are a variety of solutions for running Google Play Store on Windows 11. But Microsoft does not officially support it.
There are a variety of solutions to run the Google Play Store via Windows 11

Banai also shared various statistics about the importance of Windows over the past two years. Windows 10 and Windows 11 are now running on 1.4 billion devices every month. The PC market has seen strong growth throughout the pandemic.

We see three persistent trends behind this shift in PC demand and usage:

• The rise of hybrid work and learning.
• Changes in entertainment habits and distribution models.
• Changing consumer habits for everyday tasks.

Microsoft also claims a 6-fold increase in the number of people using applications such as Cisco WebEx, Slack, Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

Next month's Windows 11 update also makes it easier to share your screen in Microsoft Teams and other video calling apps.

In addition, a new tab appears when you hover over apps like Microsoft Teams via the taskbar. The new tab allows you to quickly share the contents of the window during a call.

Since the pandemic began, the number of people streaming content on Hulu, Netflix and YouTube on Windows has increased by 70 percent, Banay says. Monthly gaming minutes have increased by more than 35 percent.