Microsoft only really dabbles when it comes to Android hardware, with phones like the Surface Duo and its successor, but that’s only one corner of its interest in the platform. It also makes several of its services, including Office, OneDrive, Microsoft Launcher, and SwiftKey, available for the mobile operating system. In an effort to consolidate its Android initiatives, Microsoft is now bringing all of these Android-adjacent development teams together under a single internal division.
An internal memo from Microsoft’s Chief Product Officer Panos Panay announced the reorganization to employees, according to Windows Central. The new, consolidated team will be called Android Microsoft Platform and Experiences (or AMPX for short), and it will include the company’s Android OS team (which handles software updates for both Surface Duo devices) and several of its Android app development groups.
The division will reportedly be headed by Ali Akgun, who was previously CVP of Surface at Microsoft, while other key executives will also be moving roles as a result of this reorganization. Despite the fact that so many key internal pieces are being shuffled around, no layoffs are expected as a result of this change.
Until now, apps like SwiftKey and Microsoft Launcher were developed and maintained under the Microsoft Mobile Experiences division (or MMX), but this reorg will see those teams move over to a group dedicated exclusively to Android. The company confirmed the shift to Windows Central in a statement:
Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis. We recently made an organizational change to accelerate our impact and better serve our customers and partners.
What can we, Android folks, expect from this move? Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get better support for Microsoft’s current Android products and services out of this, and it’s likely the company will also look into doubling down on in its efforts to integrate Android with Windows through apps like Phone Link. If we ultimately get better software support for the Surface Duo lineup from this, though, that alone would make it worth it.
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