After all the press for Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk potentially taking it to each other in the octagon, the only analog we’re likely to see is Twitter versus Meta’s new darling–Threads. The platform has picked up 70 million sign-ups in the first couple of days, and it shows no sign of slowing down. The only trouble is that, right now, it’s mobile only. You can view individual posts in a browser, but you can’t post or read your whole feed.

Personally, my relationship with the blue bird has been in sharp decline over the last few months, so I decided to give Threads a try. The best way I can describe it is, it's like rerolling a new character class in a game after having already been through the endgame content. You know, kind of refreshing.

Threads still falls behind because it’s mobile locked to Android and iOS devices, so I can’t really use it on anything other than my phone and tablet. But if you’re running Windows 11, there’s a quick path around that restriction using the Windows Subsystem for Android.

It all hinges on the Amazon Appstore and activating the ability to sideload Android APKs with the flick of a few switches. So this guide isn’t just for Threads, but more of a … meta guide for most Android apps that have available APKs. (I hope you see what I did there.)

There are multiple options for downloading Android app APKs, but if you don’t know where you’re going, you can end up in some unsavory corners of the web. One of the safest in my experience is APKMirror.

While there are several options for apps that allow installation of Android APKs once the Windows Subsystem for Android is installed, WSATools is one of the simplest and most straightforward, and it's another pickup from the Microsoft Store.

All the pieces are in place, let’s go!

If this doesn’t work, or it says it can’t access the WSA, restarting your machine to try again will do the trick.

And that’s it! Threads should now be available in your Start menu, so when you’re at your desk at work or on your gaming rig taking a break between runs, you can open Threads on your Windows 11 PC with the same ease as Microsoft’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Windows apps. Happy spooling! (Is that what we’re calling it?)