Live Tiles - What is the Deal?

[rockstarzzz]

I had thought that the 'six live tiles' limitation ended with WP8?

Nope it hasn't. I still get the warning when I have 7th app that goes live. I was surprised to see this app number limitation even on Windows 8! I have to constantly keep unselecting background task for apps when I try new apps with live tiles on Windows 8.

 

[Curtieson]

Nope it hasn't. I still get the warning when I have 7th app that goes live. I was surprised to see this app number limitation even on Windows 8! I have to constantly keep unselecting background task for apps when I try new apps with live tiles on Windows 8.

Can we get a screen shot?

I was under the impression that the "open to continue it working" was also done. I actually have like 30 things pinned to my start screen, but only 6 non-native live tiles and don't know 1 of the other 80 I have installed that actually has a live tile.

 

[scdkad]

Sooo...as I said, what is the common denominator between ALL those phones? DEVELOPERS!

If Markets and Me doesn't work...ditch it. Never had an issue with my stock app. Try "MyStocks", great little Live Tile.

My Stocks is great.....when it works. Which isn't 100% of the time.

 

[scdkad]

That was true in WP7.X, but not in WP8. There were articles about how they changed that. Before, if you had something pinned to the start the phone would allow the background tasks to run for 2 weeks, if the app wasn't used/opened in two weeks it would stop. Now, as long as the user has it pinned to the start screen it will run.



Are you talking about 30 seconds straight? Again, that is a feature, not a bug. Why do you need your tiles to keep spinning for minutes/hours on end? They will flip a couple of times, and then stop. If you want them to keep flipping, just go to another screen and come back and they will restart that process. There are only 2 sides to the tiles, what are you trying to read that takes more than 3 or 4 seconds?



Now that is a great question! and I have no idea! I would say because it is new is the #1 reason. But it clearly isn't impossible to do, as a lot of companies do it well. I have never tried to make a LIVE tile myself, but it could be a lack of good documentation explaining the process?

I do feel there is a TON of room for improvement with them...I wish there was a way to better test out the live tile features for apps though. It is nice that the App Store says they have live tiles now, but that isn't really enough.

This OS is NOT new. It has been out since October of 2010..I have been using it since March 2011 (LG Quantum, now Lumia 900, wife has Titan I since November 2011) and I am pretty much resigned to the fact that most live tiles will never work 100% of the time.

 

[smoledman]

Stop telling lies about 7.8, My live tiles never stopped working with the 7.8 update! Of course I have good taste in apps, I don't just download any old crap.

 

[mr_808]

I had this problem for the longest time and I just figured out how to fix last week. Just try turning the phone off and then turning it back on. Don't do a soft reset! Just hold the power button until it tells you to slide down to turn off. Slide down, power it back up, and see what happens. I tried so many things before trying this and it worked the second I did.

This helped my lockscreen to start updating too!

Hope this helps you too.

 

[Curtieson]

This OS is NOT new. It has been out since October of 2010..I have been using it since March 2011 (LG Quantum, now Lumia 900, wife has Titan I since November 2011) and I am pretty much resigned to the fact that most live tiles will never work 100% of the time.

It doesn't matter if it has been out for 20 years...if no one ever coded for it, it is still new. The devs have no idea how to work with the tiles until they get in and make mistakes and learn from them. It is a very new to all of them.

But, I do not disagree that Live Tiles are a VERY finicky system and very far from 100% perfect. Along with the notification system. Sometimes I get Facebook toasts, most of the time I don't...it is all very finicky...

 

[BeaverJuicer]

This OS is NOT new. It has been out since October of 2010..I have been using it since March 2011 (LG Quantum, now Lumia 900, wife has Titan I since November 2011) and I am pretty much resigned to the fact that most live tiles will never work 100% of the time.

This is a Windows Phone 8 Thread. WP8 has been in the wild since October 31, 2012. That is less than 4 months.

The only thing WP8 has in common with WP7 is the graphic display visual style. EVERYTHING else is brand spanking new.

It's like the difference between Win98 and WinXP.

 

[jcagga]

You might want to change your tittle to 3rd party applications live tiles issues

 

[PipoDj]

Are you talking about 30 seconds straight? Again, that is a feature, not a bug. Why do you need your tiles to keep spinning for minutes/hours on end? They will flip a couple of times, and then stop. If you want them to keep flipping, just go to another screen and come back and they will restart that process. There are only 2 sides to the tiles, what are you trying to read that takes more than 3 or 4 seconds?

Wow OK so it is as feature then not a bug. But please next time try to reply and explain Nicely. First timers like me have expectations. You can try not to lace your comments with insult. I was under the impression that the Wpcentral community is nice people unlike iTards and Fandroids - i guess i was wrong.

B) Animation stops after 20-30 seconds of inactivity, because the phone thinks you are no longer looking at it. Touch your screen, and everything will start moving again.

Thanks for explaining it that way good sir. At least some of you here are kind enough to break it to newbies gently the way you did.

 

[rockstarzzz]

Wow OK so it is as feature then not a bug. But please next time try to reply and explain Nicely. First timers like me have expectations. You can try not to lace your comments with insult. I was under the impression that the Wpcentral community is nice people unlike iTards and Fandroids - i guess i was wrong.

Thanks for explaining it that way good sir. At least some of you here are kind enough to break it to newbies gently the way you did.

Don't take things written to you on WPC so personally. Most of the peeps replying are writing with a good will, believe it or not!

However, some stuff asked (especially after the bloody passport feature on Mobile Nations) are purely to troll or for the sake of stupidity. Hence, the stereotype. Also, mostly you will find such responses, only when what is being asked *might* easily be looked at in one of the 10,000 threads already posted in last 2-3 years on this board. Live tiles for example aren't new so most likely someone had a thought like yours and must have asked in last 2 years so you might easily find better explanations using search button to top right.

 

[mr_lysgaard]

NO! I have more than 6 live tiles working. including battery and a clock, my only problem is the that Facebook by windows get it's notifications late sometimes. I have battery,clock, facebook, two different mails, sms, phone, Week View, Camera, Photo Album, Shortcut to Google, Internet Explorer, Twitter, LinkedIn, Games, Beweather, Skydrive, store, beaty, camera effects, Spotify, Shazam, and metrotube.

Clock is one
Battery is two
Facebook is three
One mail is four
One more mail is five
sms is six
Phone is seven
Week view is eight
Twitter is nine
LinkedIn is ten
Store is 11
Shazam is 12

all of these apps update live am I right?

 

[Mosov]

one thing I can't believe is that there is no weather app with proper tile support. What's so hard about having a tile that updates the weather based on your current location so you don't have to click on it all the time??

 

[Hiiiiiiiii]

bad developer coding.

I have a Stock market app, I have had it for a couple of months now and it has never stopped working. My weather app, that I have had for closer to two years, always has issues where it won't update....on WP7 and WP8, just opening the app fixes it though.

Non sense, even Bing Translator daily word of the day never works, so MSFT is bad at coding their own apps?

 

[rockstarzzz]

NO! I have more than 6 live tiles working. including battery and a clock, my only problem is the that Facebook by windows get it's notifications late sometimes. I have battery,clock, facebook, two different mails, sms, phone, Week View, Camera, Photo Album, Shortcut to Google, Internet Explorer, Twitter, LinkedIn, Games, Beweather, Skydrive, store, beaty, camera effects, Spotify, Shazam, and metrotube.

Clock is one
Battery is two
Facebook is three
One mail is four
One more mail is five
sms is six
Phone is seven
Week view is eight
Twitter is nine
LinkedIn is ten
Store is 11
Shazam is 12

all of these apps update live am I right?

The live tile apps are: fb, twitter, LinkedIn, weekview.

Rest are stock or don't run live.

Go to settings, swipe left, tap background tasks and you will see the list.

 

[rockstarzzz]

Non sense, even Bing Translator daily word of the day never works, so MSFT is bad at coding their own apps?

yup

 

[Curtieson]

Wow OK so it is as feature then not a bug. But please next time try to reply and explain Nicely. First timers like me have expectations. You can try not to lace your comments with insult. I was under the impression that the Wpcentral community is nice people unlike iTards and Fandroids - i guess i was wrong.

Don't take things written to you on WPC so personally. Most of the peeps replying are writing with a good will, believe it or not!

Whoa... 1st...Rockstarzz seems to have cleared it up already...I wasn't attacking like you thought, just asking the question that the R&D department would have asked when they were creating the OS.

But...I do have to ask, are you new to the internet? haha Certainly if I were attacking you...that would be the most mild attack ever on the WWW.

 

[Curtieson]

The live tile apps are: fb, twitter, LinkedIn, weekview.

Rest are stock or don't run live.

Go to settings, swipe left, tap background tasks and you will see the list.

The Battery app isn't stock. It would use a Live Tile slot. Shazam is also 3rd party, and the clock one also. Wouldn't those all take 1 of the 6 slots? Add that to the 4 you mentioned, and there is 7.

Also, being listed in the Background Tasks is not a requirement for a Live tile. My Weatherapp is not listed and it has a live tile. Same with Lync (MS's Business orientated IM client.)

 

[RobinPaul]

Wow OK so it is as feature then not a bug. But please next time try to reply and explain Nicely. First timers like me have expectations. You can try not to lace your comments with insult. I was under the impression that the Wpcentral community is nice people unlike iTards and Fandroids - i guess i was wrong.



Thanks for explaining it that way good sir. At least some of you here are kind enough to break it to newbies gently the way you did.

Hey I also ran into this Problem. here is a video link show you: https://skydrive.live.com/#cid=37AC2...007%216148&v=3 let me know

 

[AndyCalling]

Wow OK so it is as feature then not a bug. But please next time try to reply and explain Nicely. First timers like me have expectations. You can try not to lace your comments with insult. I was under the impression that the Wpcentral community is nice people unlike iTards and Fandroids - i guess i was wrong.

It's spelt Tardis, not iTards. If you want to get on with her, try calling her 'Sexy'.