Windows 11 Search Starts Opening Android Apps From Your Phone

Microsoft officially killed Android apps on Windows when it shut down the Windows Subsystem for Android. They are quietly coming back anyway, with a twist: this time your phone does the work. Windows Latest has found that Windows 11's new taskbar Search can surface apps installed on a paired Android phone as "Mobile App" results - and clicking Open launches the app on the phone while mirroring it to the PC through Phone Link.

In the site's test, typing "Bluesky" into Search on a Surface Laptop surfaced the app installed on a Samsung Galaxy phone right at the top of the results, alongside the usual Bing suggestions and local files. Search treats the phone app like any other app result.

How it works

The trick runs on Phone Link, Microsoft's built-in phone companion: pair an Android phone with the PC, and Search gains access to what is on it. Microsoft has already confirmed that the new Search can place calls, send texts, and toggle Do Not Disturb on a connected phone. Opening phone apps is the part it has not talked about - the release notes don't mention it. The test ran on Windows 11 26H2, build 26340.9767, in the Experimental channel, paired with a Galaxy A26 running Android 16.

Not official yet

The Experimental channel caveat matters: this is where Microsoft tries things that may change, break, or never ship to stable builds. There is no announcement, no documentation, and no timeline. But the direction is clear enough - after WSA's funeral, Microsoft is rebuilding the "Android apps on Windows" story around the phone you already own instead of an app store you had to install.