Microsoft made updates and changes to the Windows subsystem for Android to improve Android integration Windows 11. Recently the company updated the subsystem to support Android 13 and now the company has added support for local files for Android apps running on WSA on Windows 11.
The folder sharing feature for Windows Subsystem for Android works the same way as any other virtual machine setup, and we’ve already seen something similar with third-party Android emulators like BlueStacks.
Microsoft announced the new folder sharing feature for WSA via WSA GitHub. The message confirms that the feature is rolling out with build 2305 of WSA. That means that users need to update their Windows Subsystem for Android with the mentioned version in order to use the feature.
The feature will be available in WSA settings and once enabled C:Users(username) will be shared with WSA under file picker as /sdcard/Windows.
How this changes the Android app experience on Windows
Once the feature is enabled, the Android system on Windows gets access to all important folders and files from different sections such as Pictures, Downloads, and Documents, making the files stored here accessible within the Windows subsystem for Android on Windows 11 PCs.
This allows users to access their data from anywhere on the device, including an Android app. For example, Android has many photo and video editing apps. So, this allows users to take and edit the photos or videos stored on Windows folder access in the photo editing or video editing app.
With security in mind, Microsoft has also allowed users to revoke permission and access to shared folders on a per-app basis through the app settings. The good thing here is that users can drag and drop files into the Android app to share that particular file even with the shared folder feature turned off.
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