One aspect where operating systems for computers have always triumphed over their mobile counterparts is the support for advanced utilities such as virtual machines. Android 13’s Developer Preview 1 released last week could change that for the better.

At first glance, Android 13 appears to be an incremental improvement from Android 12, with improvements ranging from a new photo picker to dynamic theming for third-party app icons. However, Android web and app developer Danny Lin discovered that Android 13 could run Windows 11’s ARM-based build as a virtual machine. In a series of tweets, Lin showed off how he managed to get Windows 11 running on a Google Pixel 6 on the Android 13 DP1 update.

And here's Windows 11 as a VM on Pixel 6 https://t.co/0557SfeJtN pic.twitter.com/v7OIcWC3Ab

— Danny Lin (@kdrag0n) February 13, 2022

He notes that although there is no support for hardware-enabled graphics acceleration yet, the virtual machine was able to achieve near-native performance levels. The Pixel 6’s CPU, RAM, and I/O were accurately detected and supported on the Windows 11 VM. He went on to tweet a video showing how legendary PC game Doom could run on the Windows 11 VM with ease. The Pixel 6 also detected his computer’s keyboard as an input for the Windows 11 VM.

Yes, it runs Doom (connecting to the phone's Windows VM from my computer for keyboard input) pic.twitter.com/6PORUnJk8m

— Danny Lin (@kdrag0n) February 14, 2022

While Windows 11 is cool, Lin also succeeded in running several Linux distros on the Android DP as a virtual machine. This cool functionality is enabled by a new virtualization framework baked into Android 13.

Our Take

This is not the first time we have seen Windows running as a virtual machine on Android. However, native support for VMs on Android is a step forward to deeper integration between Android and Windows. Moreover, the Windows 11 VM could be rather useful if you prefer the familiarity of the OS on all your devices.

Windows 11 would be a dream to use on touchscreen Android devices because of the recently added optimizations that make the Windows UI more touch-friendly, with responsive menus, larger clickable buttons, and familiarity we have come to associate with Windows. That said, what do you think of VMs on Android? Would you use the feature, even if it is complicated to set up and optimize? Tell us in the comments section below. If you wish to read more about virtualization on Android 13, you could check out Mishaal Rahman’s detailed blog post about it.