Microsoft Store on Windows has been updated to allow third-party storefront apps on the platform, Giorgio Sardo, General Manager, Microsoft Store, said in a blog post.

“Just like any other app, third-party storefront apps will have a product detail page that can be found via search or by browsing — so that users can easily find and instal it with the same confidence as any other app in the Microsoft Store on Windows,” Sardo said.

With the update, to begin with, Amazon and Epic Games will bring their storefront apps to Microsoft Store over the next few months.

As noted by The Verge , the only difference here is Microsoft’s partnership with Amazon, which the tech giant announced earlier this year, to bring Amazon’s Android apps and games to Windows. As Microsoft plans to bring Android apps to Windows 11, Windows customers can discover the apps in Microsoft Store and acquire them through Amazon Appstore.

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It will start as a preview for Windows Insiders soon.

“We will share soon more details about the system requirements and market availability of the preview experience,” Microsoft said.

The news about allowing third-party storefront apps comes months after Microsoft announced an overhaul of Microsoft Store with the launch of Windows 11. It had opened up Microsoft Store on Windows to developers using different types of frameworks, packaging technologies, and commerce platforms.

From July 28, app developers could also bring their own or a third-party commerce platform in their apps without paying Microsoft any fee. They can keep 100 per cent of their revenue, although this does not apply to games, as per The Verge .

As a result of this policy, a slew of new desktop apps including Discord, Zoom Cloud Meetings and KakaoTalk, and creativity-focused tools such as Luminar AI, Music Maker and VLC are available on Microsoft Store.

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Desktop productivity applications like TeamViewer, Adobe Acrobat Reader DC and LibreOffice are also available for download and are joined by new additions from Microsoft such as Microsoft PowerToys, Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio Community.

Furthermore, several high-quality progressive web apps (PWA) are now available in Microsoft Store on Windows, including Reddit, Wikipedia, TikTok, Lyft, Quizlet and Tumblr.

In June, the tech giant had updated its policies for browser apps, enabling developers to bring their own browser engines on the platform instead of relying on the operating system’s web platform.

Now, two browsers have joined Microsoft Edge in Microsoft Store on Windows — Opera and Yandex Browser.

The overhauled Microsoft Store will launch alongside Windows 11 on October 5. It will also be available to Windows 10 customers in the coming months