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microsoft
USB & Bluetooth support in WSA
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe
USB and Bluetooth are marked not supported in Android 12.
Describe the solution you'd like
Hardware interfaces USB, BT on Win11 are required to be accessible in WSA. This shall help point of service android apps support installation on WSA. Consider an Android POS app running on WSA can connect to barcode scanner and print the receipt on successful transaction. Printer can be USB, BT, or network based. Scanner can be BT , USB based.
Could you please enable these features on WSA ?
Describe alternatives you've considered
USB barcode scanner with keywedge mode support works on WSA. But USB printer is not getting detected in WSA. Bluetooth devices are also not detected in WSA
Please specify the version of Windows Subsystem for Android
2207.40000.8.0
Hi, thank you for this feature request. This isn't currently on our scheduled roadmap, but we're always listening to the community to prioritize new features.
Hi @bnkoppad, we'd love to learn more about your scenarios! Can you give us some more info about your scenarios? Are you running a business that has POS devices that you'd prefer to be Windows-based? Or are you developing POS apps? Thanks!
This affects my apps, too. I have two existing music apps that can send and receive MIDI through USB. (I see that the Android MIDI system isn't supported in WSA, but I use a third-party MIDI library as a fallback.)
Hi @bnkoppad, we'd love to learn more about your scenarios! Can you give us some more info about your scenarios? Are you running a business that has POS devices that you'd prefer to be Windows-based? Or are you developing POS apps? Thanks!
Hi @andrewleader We are working with couple of partners, they are into fashion retail and consumer stores. Currently they have POS and display apps used separately. for consolidation, it would be ideal to use - win11 + WSA to run both on single device. Enabling reuse of existing Android POS, digital signage apps directly on WSA benefits than developing it for Windows. POS apps use printers, scanners for their functionality, for which peripheral BT and USB support is required in WSA.
@bnkoppad this is exciting to hear! We would love to talk more in depth about your scenarios and learn whether you have any other requirements (like how you would want to deploy apps, hardware requirements of these machines, etc). If you're interested in talking more with us, could you email us at [email protected]? Thank you!!
Bluetooth support is a key feature that will allow our app users to utilize external GPS devices. We would be happy to answer any questions or help test.
Jake Brown Product Engineer Esri
Hey @jake-brown-maps, it's great to hear from you and ArcGIS! Please also send us an email at [email protected], we'd love to learn more about your scenarios, for example whether you'll be publishing your app to the Amazon Appstore or how you'd be planning on distributing your app to customers! We'll start reading some more about ArcGIS till we hear from you! Thanks! 😊
It might be useful to organize the bluetooth request into two distinct requests.
- This request for Bluetooth supported via an additional USB device over USB pass-thru. Similar to https://source.android.com/docs/devices/automotive/start/passthrough
- https://github.com/microsoft/WSA/issues/90 for Bluetooth support that maps the Android bluetooth stack to the Windows Windows.Devices.Bluetooth Runtime API.
Number 1 is probably much easier to achieve but 2 is the ideal since it would support sharing the Bluetooth hardware already in the system with WSA.
Hi @bnkoppad, we'd love to learn more about your scenarios! Can you give us some more info about your scenarios? Are you running a business that has POS devices that you'd prefer to be Windows-based? Or are you developing POS apps? Thanks!
Hello, another scenario I have (if its any help) is using an app for device management/update (such as the Bose Music app with Bose headphones) that's not available otherwise on Windows.
Bluetooth/BLE support would be awesome. There are a TON of apps out there that use BLE to connect to devices - by adding BLE support it would be possible to do things like:
- Control a GoPro or other camera from your laptop, have a larger viewing screen
- Get real-time data from a glucose meter on your laptop
- Use your laptop to set up IoT devices
- Use your laptop as a key for a vehicle
- Develop and test Android apps with BLE support
Enabling WSA to access realtime GPS data would in one shot enable all navigation and other position dependent apps. Most laptops uses GPS dongels connected to the USB port for acquiring positiondata. Most apps and dongles uses serial port communication for transferring the position data. Currently the lack of GPS position data leaves all navigation apps useless. I apologize if I have I missed something or if this request has been already addressed in some other forum or thresd?
Hi @bnkoppad, we'd love to learn more about your scenarios! Can you give us some more info about your scenarios? Are you running a business that has POS devices that you'd prefer to be Windows-based? Or are you developing POS apps? Thanks!
Hi @andrewleader We are working with couple of partners, they are into fashion retail and consumer stores. Currently they have POS and display apps used separately. for consolidation, it would be ideal to use - win11 + WSA to run both on single device. Enabling reuse of existing Android POS, digital signage apps directly on WSA benefits than developing it for Windows. POS apps use printers, scanners for their functionality, for which peripheral BT and USB support is required in WSA.
I had the same thinking as you, I currently have an app on Android for retails and consumer store. We are using Android base device, and a lot of our customers want to buy their own device, and they want big-screen devices like windows 11. Right now we use all the connections through ethernet for Windows 11 using WSA. The connection is not that great if the router is down, so we do not really recommend our client buy a PC. It would drastically increase our sale in windows if WSA support direct USB connection for printer, scanner and credit card machine.
My company has an app that offers setup and visualization of your environmental scientific data taken from instrumentation. Customers pay for consumables and subscription access, and this revenue routes through the app store. But there are certain customers that are only able to use PCs. ESRI, who commented above about this need, and other related GIS type apps offer similar monetization we would take to Windows...
...IF we are able to access local instrumentation via bluetooth and/or USB in WSA. I understand the low-hanging fruit for Microsoft may only be to backdoor a channel to the IAP/F2P game revenue with WSA, but I really think there's revenue potential for Microsoft in the industrial/environmental/POS spaces when local communication with hardware is supported. But, I also speculate Microsoft is worried about kneecapping their own frameworks (like .NET/MAUI) and by proxy weakening their hardware ecosystems if they offer too much functionality in WSA.
I would appreciate a straight answer from Microsoft on this whole issue and how they feel about just targeting game revenue or if they want to expand in the same spaces as iOS/Google Play in industrial/environmental/etc. with WSA.
We are interested in providing Bluetooth support. It's just a matter of finding the right technical solution. Note that for GPS, if your sensor (internal or external) works with the Windows Geolocation APIs, then it will work from WSA regardless of whether WSA can directly access the external GPS device. For example, Surface Pro X devices have internal GPS sensors that provide precise location data to WSA.
We are interested in providing Bluetooth support. It's just a matter of finding the right technical solution.
That is fantastic news. Can you share what the debate is concerning the right technical solution?
We are also struggling with Shopify POS on a tablet next to our PC (therefore using a lot of space on the counter and it's very impractical to type custom orders without a keyboard). Most really good POS systems are for Android and for iOS. We are considering to switch to Mac M1 systems to run iOS apps natively (they support bluetooth and network printers). We need bluetooth for our card readers and barcode scanners. Would be amazing for you guys to add bluetooth and USB/network printer support. I think everyone would love to be able to use a Windows computer (maybe surface pro with touchscreen) as a POS system while keeping computer functionality for Photoshop, full blown Office 365, iTunes etc. Would be AMAZING.
Hello everyone.
It would be very interesting to provide USB connectivity and support for the serial port.
I want to use an oscilloscope app (Scoopy) without having to use a 10'' tablet or having to install Android-x86 on a physical machine to make it work smoothly.
Finding a way to run apks directly in windows made me very happy, but disappointed to see that it doesn't detect the device via USB (Raspberry Pi Pico with serial port emulation).
Greetings from Murcia, Spain.
Adding my support for the USB support request. I'd love to use my Surface to fly my drone. WSA getting USB support would allow me to connect my surface to the physical controller.
The Ham-radio community, use many times CAT control for their radios. For example pRxTx Pro. Would be great if this works via WSA.
I've had various connectivity issues with Android and iOS with a Meta Quest 2 headset and their mobile app, and was curious to try it from WSA. I figured I'd check if Bluetooth with WSA was supported first, and now I'm here :p
This would be neat to be able to activate new Meta Quest headsets as they require the mobile app (and thus a phone/device) for a few minutes during initial set-up.
Adding support for Bluetooth and USB peripherals like printers, scanners, or GPS sensors would be a game changer for WAS in Windows. Looking forward to getting updates on this issue. I would also love to help with the technical challenges of incorporating this in WSA.
We have an android app that supports police officers and fire fighters. GPS in vehicle tracking and barcode scanning to scan the driver licenses is a key feature. Having the ability to read from an external USB device is very key for us to use WSA widely.
We have an android app for the search and rescue market used by fire fighters and rescue specialist, WSA BLE support is the only thing that's stopping us from supporting Windows which many of the specialists and incident command centers use.
Hello community, I have an Android application that works with a thermal printer via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and USB, and also with a barcode reader. I managed to connect the reader to the WSA and when scanning the normal product it recognized it, as for the ticket, I was able to print via Wi-Fi, but I still can't do it via USB and Bluetooth, and I need these two means. My app link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pe.codelab.mobifact
Hi, I do confirm that bluetooth network is an absolute need within WSA to use application controlling and/or using network peripheral devices such as printers, tabs, ... for sure but as well sound speakers, audio mixer and so on. Many many thanks to take in consideration this request.
@kevink
We are interested in providing Bluetooth support. It's just a matter of finding the right technical solution. Note that for GPS, if your sensor (internal or external) works with the Windows Geolocation APIs, then it will work from WSA regardless of whether WSA can directly access the external GPS device. For example, Surface Pro X devices have internal GPS sensors that provide precise location data to WSA.
Is Microsoft/WSA still even considering this feature? this is one of the most commented and requested features for WSA, but the ominous lack of release updates since October after them being regular on the month until then makes me think this is abandoned.