Microsoft is putting together a new team to build fully native apps for Windows 11. This marks a big shift after years of using web technologies to run key software on the platform.
Rudy Huyn, a Partner Architect at Microsoft who works on the Store and File Explorer said on X that he is hiring for a new team focused on Windows apps.
When someone asked if the new apps would be Progressive Web Apps, Huyn said no. He said the new Windows 11 apps would be 100% native.
The decision comes after users grew increasingly unhappy with the state of Windows software. Many of Microsoft’s own products including its built in video editor Clipchamp and its Copilot assistant, run on web technologies instead of native code.
Popular third party apps have done the same. WhatsApp, for example dropped its native WinUI framework and switched to a slower Chromium based wrapper.
So what does native actually mean? Native apps are built directly on Windows own tools and system features. They do not load content through built in web browsers.
A fully native app would use the WinUI framework without relying on WebView components to show parts of the interface. Native apps are usually faster, use less memory and look and feel more consistent across Windows.
The new team comes alongside a larger Windows 11 update focused on making the system faster that update includes quicker context menus, shorter File Explorer load times, a WinUI powered Start menu and new taskbar options like resizing and moving it around.
But there are still unanswered questions. Microsoft has not said which apps it plans to rebuild or whether it will convert existing web based apps to native code. Some apps that are already called native still use WebView for certain feature that makes the 100% promise a tough one to keep.
It is also not clear whether this plan will go beyond Microsoft’s own software. Getting big third party developers to drop their cross platform web tools and build specifically for Windows will not be easy, especially since web based development is still cheaper and faster.
For now, this looks more like a plan than a finished product. Whether Microsoft actually delivers on it will decide if Windows 11 can finally fix the slow, uneven experience that has bothered users for years.
