Over the last month, Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy S21 have noticed the Amazon Appstore doesn’t work with Android 12. And we say it doesn’t work, we mean it’s almost entirely broken. Most people report they can’t run any of the software they’ve downloaded from Amazon. Yet others say they don’t see any apps when they visit the marketplace. An Amazon forum post spotted by The Verge succinctly captures the situation many Appstore users find themselves in after installing Android 12.
“My rain radar app from the Amazon Appstore is still happily running and giving me alerts via notifications, but I can’t actually see them because it is being prevented from running full screen by the Amazon Appstore’s failure to run properly,” said forum user Lovingboth.
Amazon has yet to say when it plans to fix the problem. The company only added a notice to the top of the Appstore about the Android 12 issues earlier this week. “We’re excited about Android 12 too,” the notification says. “Unfortunately we’re working through some issues. Thank you for your patience as we get your Appstore back.”
As Liliputing points out, the Appstore’s problems with Android 12 likely stem from incompatibility between Amazon’s built-in DRM and Google’s new operating system. “We are aware and working to resolve an issue impacting app performance and launches for the small number of Amazon Appstore users that have upgraded to Android 12 on their mobile devices,” an Amazon spokesperson told The Verge. “This issue does not impact Amazon Fire Tablets or Fire TV devices.”
With Android 12 only available on a handful of devices and most using the Play Store to download their apps, it’s not a problem that affects many people. Still, it’s one that’s poised to become more widespread as the update rolls out to more devices, particularly if Amazon doesn’t work quickly to resolve it.
