Amazon Appstore Might Be Having Compatibility Issues With Android 12

Over a month since the Android update got released, users have been making complaints about the inability to use any of the apps in the Amazon Appstore, according to 9to5Google. Reports of the issue came to light on an Amazon forum about a month ago, and up until now, there’s no timeline for a possible fix.

An Amazon spokesperson Troy Edwards in an interview discloses that the company was aware of the situation. Amazon spokesperson said that “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.” Edwards also disclosed that “This issue does not impact Amazon Fire Tablets or Fire TV devices.”

A user by the name Lovingboth has taken to the thread on Amazon’s digital and device forum to describe their experience with the issue. Lovingboth said that “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.”

Some users have revealed that no app appears when they seem to open the Amazon Appstore, while others said they have cited receiving prompts to update their apps when no update is needed in the first place. An Amazon staff member who took to respond to complaints in the Amazon forum mentioned that the “technical team is still investigating the issue,” but doesn’t offer much of an explanation of what the exact problem is.

According to reports from Liliputing, the issue might have originated as a result of a lack of compatibility between Amazon’s built-in DRM and Android 12. A user from the Amazon forum, Eduardo S, has highlighted a few pointers to the DRM as the root of the issue. The user notes that — for the technologically savvy — you can try downloading an app’s APK on another device that has an older version of Android. From there, you can decompile the app’s code, comment out lines referring to the DRM, repackage it with a self-signed certificate, and then install the APK on your Android 12 device.

Unfortunately, this may turn out to be something most Android 12 users are going to be comfortable doing and it seems pretty clear that the issue with Amazon Appstore is affecting more than just the 90-plus users who have posted comments on Amazon’s thread. There have been nearly 3,800 total views, so there appear to be plenty of Android 12 early adopters who would like to have something done about the problem.

Obviously, the issue may be affecting only a small fraction of users today, chances are that number of affected users will continue to grow as time goes on. Initially, Google launched Android 12 first on just its Pixel devices, in mid-November Galaxy S21 users also received the update. Plans are in motion by Samsung to bring the update to more of its phones as time goes on and so are other device manufacturers, which might further complicate things for Amazon.

It’s easy to see why decision-makers at Amazon are not feeling users’ inability to use the Amazon Appstore is a major priority right now. Amazon is probably far more focused on the shoppers who are frantically purchasing interested in the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales from its own stores and big-box retailers looking for steep discounts. Although, Amazon claims to be “Earth’s most customer-centric company,” after all. Presumably, at some point, this customer-centric nature will also include Appstore customers who have upgraded to Android 12.