Microsoft scraps Android-to-Windows app porting programme

An initiative aimed at smoothing the transition between mobile and PC for devs has been canned by Microsoft.

Project Astoria was revealed at last year’s Build conference, and focused on an easy way to translate Android app code into a form compatible with Windows 10 by essentially acting as an emulator.

At the time, Microsoft also unveiled a similar programme for a ‘bridge’ between iOS and Windows.

As it turns out, having two separate technologies that essentially served the same purpose was eventually considered as overly convoluted, so Microsoft has now cancelled the Android bridge project to focus solely on iOS.

“We received a lot of feedback that having two Bridge technologies to bring code from mobile operating systems to Windows was unnecessary, and the choice between them could be confusing,” admitted Microsoft director Kevin Gallo.

“We have carefully considered this feedback and decided that we would focus our efforts on the Windows Bridge for iOS and make it the single Bridge option for bringing mobile code to all Windows 10 devices, including Xbox and PCs.

“For those developers who spent time investigating the Android Bridge, we strongly encourage you to take a look at the iOS Bridge and Xamarin as great solutions.”

Gallo added that while API coverage originally prioritised game developers, it would now expand to cover all types of app.