What if universal apps on Windows 10 stopped developers from making apps?!

[Qais Abu-Hasan]

Hey everyone
I came with a bit of weird thought I dunno if I was right or wrong , I like the universal app thing and it is really amazing to have the very same app run on both my phone and laptop , this idea is really compelling and good for developers for easier developing and wider audience , but if you take another look , wouldn't that be bad for some certain developers or companies ?
Take WhatsApp for example , it hadn't ever made an app for PC did it ? But with windows 10 it MUST make that app bcos it will run on the PC , am I wrong ? The same story goes for other apps like snapchat , and less common apps like bitstrips (makes cartoonish comics of yourself and share on facebook and twitter) , so what do you think ??

 

[Asskickulater]

Hey everyone ��
I came with a bit of weird thought I dunno if I was right or wrong , I like the universal app thing and it is really amazing to have the very same app run on both my phone and laptop , this idea is really compelling and good for developers for easier developing and wider audience , but if you take another look , wouldn't that be bad for some certain developers or companies ?
Take WhatsApp for example , it hadn't ever made an app for PC did it ? But with windows 10 it MUST make that app bcos it will run on the PC , am I wrong ? The same story goes for other apps like snapchat , and less common apps like bitstrips (makes cartoonish comics of yourself and share on facebook and twitter) , so what do you think ??

They don't HAVE to, its not a requirement, but.. if you already have the app for it made, there really is no reason not to..

 

[Benito Sifuentes]

It might even give them incentive to actually develop more for Windows devices... Especially if the company is looking into making applications for PCs

 

[KarmaEcrivain94]

If you want, you can only dev for one of the 2 platforms. The thing is, it's just as simple to dev for both at the same time. If we're lucky, stuff like WhatsApp will come to w10 for devices over 8'

 

[Qais Abu-Hasan]

They didn't say anything about developing for a specific platform! Am I missing something here ?

 

[Jas00555]

They didn't say anything about developing for a specific platform! Am I missing something here ?

Why would they possibly go "and with Windows 10, you're able to develop for only one platform if you want to! How exciting!!"?

Although, there is something you're missing alright...

 

[Qais Abu-Hasan]

Why would they possibly go "and with Windows 10, you're able to develop for only one platform if you want to! How exciting!!"?

Although, there is something you're missing alright...

That's the point , why would they do that !

 

[Jas00555]

That's the point , why would they do that !

Yes, why would they brag about how limited you could make an app? If you get that, I don't get your OP.

 

[anon(5383410)]

with windows 10 it MUST make that app bcos it will run on the PC , am I wrong ?

Yes, you're wrong.

 

[eruptflail]

What you forget is they all DO have apps on tablets. That's the catch. They want to get on your surface or transformer book, because you might be carting that thing around.

 

[Southgarden116]

BTW WhatsApp is now available on the PC through the Chrome Browser. So I don't think it's a problem for them to have an App for Windows 10.

 

[Ouzzi]

I think their universal app idea is that you can develop an app/idea for windows 10 and if you want you can easily publish it on the windows 10 store for phones or for xbox one. You wouldn't need to do a lot of coding to port the app. *Not sure how it works exactly* but I'm pretty sure the whole universal app is all about flexibility.

If your app can work for desktop/tablet/xbox audiences along with mobile ones then hey, why wouldn't a developer want to reach more people. If it doesn't, then don't make it available to all devices.

 

[ronaldme]

People tend to talk about things without really know about it.

If you are a developer you know that there is something like the app manifest, where you can express, for example, the platform requirements (including phone capabilities)

Then, if you want to talk about something, just goigle it before

 

[nmercy]

Basically how universal apps work are you have 3 projects in the solution for the app. The first is the core code shared by the Windows app and the Windows Phone app. This would be for things like storing your data, manipulating the data, etc...

The second project is your Windows Phone project. This is where your phone specific code goes. The third project is your Windows project. This is where your PC specific code goes.

Most likely this will your user interface (because what looks good on 4.5" may not look good at 13"+), graphical asset differences (you don't need something higher resolution than what the device can support), and phone specific features (dialing the phone), etc...

It would make the most sense to create the Universal app (at least with Windows 10 as Windows 8.1/Windows Phone 8.1 have enough differences to make it viable to create separate ones) as you're sharing all your base code, the apps can have the same id (one download, download everywhere), and maintenance would be easier. Now if you didn't want to work on the Windows app or the Windows Phone app at that point, you just ignore it and don't upload it when you go to release... then if you ever decide to work on it everything is there and ready to go.

 

[Michael Alan Goff]

You can make your project universal, but I don't think you have to.

 

[_Emi_]

why would developers stop making apps? if Whatsapp didn't want to develop apps for Windows desktop or Xbox one, well... they won't and they will only publish their App for Windows Phone, but that would be silly in my opinion, because Universal apps are meant to share the most code it can, so developers only adapt the UI if they want it on desktop or xbox one.
But Universal apps are optional, just like today. and not every app made for windows phone, will make it to desktop and vice versa. But I am sure most developers won't have any excuse now not to adapt their app to other windows platforms if it only means adapting UI as Microsoft intends to do.

 

[ronaldme]

Basically how universal apps work are you have 3 projects in the solution for the app. The first is the core code shared by the Windows app and the Windows Phone app. This would be for things like storing your data, manipulating the data, etc...

The second project is your Windows Phone project. This is where your phone specific code goes. The third project is your Windows project. This is where your PC specific code goes.

Most likely this will your user interface (because what looks good on 4.5" may not look good at 13"+), graphical asset differences (you don't need something higher resolution than what the device can support), and phone specific features (dialing the phone), etc...

It would make the most sense to create the Universal app (at least with Windows 10 as Windows 8.1/Windows Phone 8.1 have enough differences to make it viable to create separate ones) as you're sharing all your base code, the apps can have the same id (one download, download everywhere), and maintenance would be easier. Now if you didn't want to work on the Windows app or the Windows Phone app at that point, you just ignore it and don't upload it when you go to release... then if you ever decide to work on it everything is there and ready to go.

This is how universal apps works on Windows Phone 8.1, but we are talking about Windows 10 universal apps.

why would developers stop making apps? if Whatsapp didn't want to develop apps for Windows desktop or Xbox one, well... they won't and they will only publish their App for Windows Phone, but that would be silly in my opinion, because Universal apps are meant to share the most code it can, so developers only adapt the UI if they want it on desktop or xbox one.
But Universal apps are optional, just like today. and not every app made for windows phone, will make it to desktop and vice versa. But I am sure most developers won't have any excuse now not to adapt their app to other windows platforms if it only means adapting UI as Microsoft intends to do.

The only thing that WhatsApp need to do is to put phone requirements on the manifest, that way the app will not work on PC or Xbox One even if it is an universal all.

 

[Bojan Malinovic]

You can but you are not obliged to develop apps for both PC and Phone. That is from purely developers point of view. But most of apps publishers are in bussiness of making money and from economic aspect its better for them to have apps for both platforms. I use many apps on my phone that I would like to buy but havent bought them just because they dont have PC version of it.

This is very good strategy from Microsoft to attract more premium app publishers to our platform and if you look at it logicaly they should have success with it but we will see what will reality bring.

 

[white_Shadoww]

I think Windows 10 is like, develope for one platform, be PC or phone, and it will work on all Windows products out of the box. That is, if developer wrote an app for PC and the requirements of the app are fulfilled by a phone, it will work on it, and developer will have to add 0 code to make it availabe to phone.

 

[alex athanasopoulos]

You make only one app and if you want works for pc, wp, tablet and xbox one. Only thing you have to do is design it once and optimize it for all screen sizes. Actually I believe it will boost the app market