Introducing Skinery Tiles (the FIRST custom tile that launches third party apps!)

[wilsey]

Great ideas and great apps. Awesome :wink:

 

[D M2]

as other people have already said, I just found the option to use my own pictures, don't know how I missed that before, Awesome.

 

[EauRouge]

Sweet app!

 

[Paul Tharian]

This is a lovely app. Would it be possible to include a feature to choose any app that is installed as the target instead of having predefined apps which can only be loaded at installation? Perhaps we can type one letter as a tile customization?

Just some random thoughts.. But anyway i love it as it is now!

 

[weareinfinite]

This is really neat.

What would make this even better imho is if you had skins that included a bunch of the WP theme colors. That way I could make my WP start screen look more like the Windows 8 start screen. I always thought it looked cool in W8 to have a bunch of colors and was surprised that I couldn't individually choose colors for MS's apps when I first played around with WP.

Also, a question: if how you can make tiles for the Store, Wallet, and IE, can you also make small tile versions of Settings and People? Or is that not permitted somehow? Those are not live tiles when small (as far as I know?) and I'd love to be able to skin them.

 

[DennisvdG]

Holy crap! Amazing! Only supports a few of my homescreen apps though... Which makes it a little useless :'(

 

[andrew120]

How does it work when an app has its own live tiles?
Will that still work?

I see you create 'fake' tiles dynamically from your app.
When this 'fake' tile is tapped by user, it launches your app which in turn launches the app.

I appreciate your ingenuity but I do not understand what's the purpose of this.
It's confusing users as they will not differentiate the real app tile from your 'fake' tile.
The problem is if the app has live tile, users won't be able to experience it.

 

[Jazmac]

I'd donate to this developer. Just promise me two things. To keep developing for WP and remove those dat blame ads.

 

[AzmoD3uS]

I think it's safe to say that community members are willing to back this app, and I'm one of them.

Great job on the app, man! Keep it up. Put up a donate option and im sure it will go a long way. And since you got this ball rolling, you should probably make a list of stuff you're working on vs stuff that's will not be added due to OS restrictions.

This should allow your fans to see what to look forward to, and the reasons why their request for the app cannot be implemented. It should help ensure that there is transparency and no one gets false hopes that their requested feature will become true (because let's face it, people can be very demanding without understanding certain limitations).

 

[AzmoD3uS]

I think the main purpose is to have customizability on the look of the tile at the expense of the live tile function of that app. hopefully later we can see the live tile function and customizability work together.

How does it work when an app has its own live tiles?
Will that still work?

I see you create 'fake' tiles dynamically from your app.
When this 'fake' tile is tapped by user, it launches your app which in turn launches the app.

I appreciate your ingenuity but I do not understand what's the purpose of this.
It's confusing users as they will not differentiate the real app tile from your 'fake' tile.
The problem is if the app has live tile, users won't be able to experience it.

 

[andrew120]

@AzmoD3uS:

​

You cannot control other app's Live Tile from your app.
Live Tiles are created by its owner app. So that will be impossible to do.

I am sorry, but in my opinion this app is useless and creates confusion to users.

 

[D M2]

creates confusion

How ? you pin a tile, all of which have the icons so we know what they are, tap the tile and it takes you to whatever you set it up for, How does that confuse you.

 

[Ultimateone]

@AzmoD3uS:

​

You cannot control other app's Live Tile from your app.
Live Tiles are created by its owner app. So that will be impossible to do.

I am sorry, but in my opinion this app is useless and creates confusion to users.

I have no idea how you can be confused, it is so simple to use, you can pin any app thats available to your own pic or the ones pre-installed.

 

[gladbecker82]

Needs some fixes like if you take Internet Explorer it always opens a new Tab with:blank. and of course more apps would be great but this is some of the stuff that will adressed hopefully

 

[yuming]

I think it's safe to say that community members are willing to back this app, and I'm one of them.

Great job on the app, man! Keep it up. Put up a donate option and im sure it will go a long way. And since you got this ball rolling, you should probably make a list of stuff you're working on vs stuff that's will not be added due to OS restrictions.

This should allow your fans to see what to look forward to, and the reasons why their request for the app cannot be implemented. It should help ensure that there is transparency and no one gets false hopes that their requested feature will become true (because let's face it, people can be very demanding without understanding certain limitations).

Thank you for your encouraging post. I will certainly keep the ball rolling.

 

[yuming]

Holy crap! Amazing! Only supports a few of my homescreen apps though... Which makes it a little useless :'(

Hi all users,

I have tried to reach out to as many app developers to integrate with Skinery but not all of them are motivated. I will keep pushing them for it but I believe if you, as their user, send them a request to work with Skinery, they are more likely to integrate their app more quickly. One user request might not push them, but if hundreds or thousands of users put in similar request, they will be motivated!

 

[andrew120]

How ? you pin a tile, all of which have the icons so we know what they are, tap the tile and it takes you to whatever you set it up for, How does that confuse you.

I will try to explain again.

Skinery Tile is creating tiles which start other applications.
But these tiles are 'fake' and do not work properly as you would expect.

With the tiles created by SkineryTile app, you won't see the number of missed calls, or missed messages or any information which live tiles display.
This cripples the Windows Phone experience and creates confusion for users.

This is because the apps do not know about and cannot communicate with the tile created by the Skinery Tile.
Skinery Tile happens to be able to run certain applications which expose a special feature (can be started by invoking a URL).

Again, I do not wish to bash this application. I like the ingenuity of the creator.
But the application is useless and I wouldn't recommend it, it cripples the Windows Phone experience.
I am sorry but it shouldn't even passed the certification, because it creates confusion for users.

If the creator of this app loves Windows Phone he shouldn't promote this app

 

[andrew120]

I have no idea how you can be confused, it is so simple to use, you can pin any app thats available to your own pic or the ones pre-installed.

please see my reply above.

 

[Ultimateone]

please see my reply above.

No need, I think the app is very creative and I would like to see more of this customization then to never see apps make the light of day.

 

[symwpapps]

I will try to explain again.

Skinery Tile is creating tiles which start other applications.
But these tiles are 'fake' and do not work properly as you would expect.

With the tiles created by SkineryTile app, you won't see the number of missed calls, or missed messages or any information which live tiles display.
This cripples the Windows Phone experience and creates confusion for users.

This is because the apps do not know about and cannot communicate with the tile created by the Skinery Tile.
Skinery Tile happens to be able to run certain applications which expose a special feature (can be started by invoking a URL).

Again, I do not wish to bash this application. I like the ingenuity of the creator.
But the application is useless and I wouldn't recommend it, it cripples the Windows Phone experience.
I am sorry but it shouldn't even passed the certification, because it creates confusion for users.

If the creator of this app loves Windows Phone he shouldn't promote this app

Hi Andrew,

Maybe I wasn't clear enough in my description. The purpose of Skinery is not to take away the live tiles capabilities. In fact, my end goal is to make it work with live tiles. But as an initial release, I think it is reasonable that we tackle the problem of launching third-party apps first. Once that is done, we can worry about the live tiles =)