A senior Microsoft engineer has hinted at a return to native apps, seemingly in line with the company's recent efforts to revitalize Windows 11. Web apps currently dominate the Microsoft Store, the preferred source for PC apps, especially for those prioritizing security on Windows 11. The store has seen significant performance improvements and hosts apps built using a variety of frameworks.

When Microsoft gave developers more freedom to build apps as they saw fit, it was seen as a positive step toward attracting more apps to Windows 11 through the store. However, this has led to many popular apps, such as Netflix and WhatsApp, replacing their native apps built with frameworks like WinUI with web apps delivered via WebView2 (PWAs). Tests have shown that WhatsApp consumes up to 600MB of memory on an 8GB device while idle.

Although PWAs are lightweight, they often lack important features like offline mode, which is available in native apps. Many Windows users have expressed their dissatisfaction with this trend, believing that the over-reliance on PWAs has negatively impacted the overall system experience.

It seems Microsoft has responded to these complaints and begun taking concrete steps to improve the app landscape in Windows 11.