Dual-OS computing has been a hot topic recently but Bluestacks have been in the game for a few years with their ‘runtime’ that executes in the Windows app space. Bluestacks are now announcing that they will take that further forward to offer a complete Android OS wrapper for Windows. Like previous versions it’s going be best when it’s optimised and offered as part of the original product and there could be some gotchas but we should pay attention because, if it works, it will be better than quick-switch or dual-boot.
Bluestacks have already demonstrated the full Android experience (see video demo below) and have aligned with AMD who have invested in Bluestacks
From the press release:
The new version of BlueStacks running on a Windows PC powered by fourth generation AMD APUs offers:
- A familiar Android user interface, including settings, configuration and customization controls;
- The ability to run Android apps within a window or at full-screen resolution leveraging direct access to AMD graphics processing power;
- Support for hundreds of thousands of Android apps direct from various Android app stores, as well as synchronization between the same apps being run on the user’s stand-alone Android devices; and
- Seamless interoperability through direct file sharing that enables Android apps to access files stored within the Windows file system.
Note that there’s no mention of Google Play there so we’re probably talking about AOS here with the BlueStacks Cloud Connect service it looks like you can push apps directly from a phone, which obviously would have Google Play and Google apps.
Timescales aren’t given and it’s not clear if this software will ever be user-installable; Optimisations will probably be required for each PC product but if it works it could be quite a nice exclusive for AMD products in the future.
AMD have a blog post on the topic here.
