Is landscape orientation in start menu coming for WP?

[Georgi Ivanov3]

It looks strange when u browse through the phone, Settings are in landscape, but not the main menu screen. To me, it feels kind of incomplete without it..
I think it would be very handy to have landscape orientation, especially for bigger screen devices. It might look something like the desktop Windows 8 orientation of icons and menus. I can imagine how beautiful it would look if they add Transition settings for the way icons re-arrange in landscape view.. icons moving around in certain order or anything that would make your phone more alive when you turn it in landscape..
So, is landscape orientation coming for WP devices?

 

[gerzhwin]

For me it would be better if any Website sports a device-responsive view ...

IDK about the landscape home screen though.

 

[xandros9]

it's possible, I bet someone experimented with it during development, but currently, as far as the community knows, its not in the cards.

 

[Reebs Reebs]

I would love to have it. Especially on large phone like the 1520 and on phones that will have on-screen buttons instead of capacitive ones. It will be a true differentiator.

 

[Vicious Enzyme]

Worst reply I saw to this was to do with the all new vast amounts of tiles needed by devs.
Although I think rotate and a little tile repositioning logic would solve that.
Kind of in shock that they still didn't bother with it in this 8.1release.
Cant see it happening in 8 at all now.
Especially with the notification center all locked up there too.
Get rsi pains using my 5" screen in portrait, all that stretching and pinky supporting. needs solving even if the nokias don't look as pretty sideways.

 

[Bjfcm]

Very good point<

I always found it weird through that the " Landscape view was not implemented or planed. Especially with Microsoft attempt to merge all 3, Phone, Tablet and Pc.

I for one strongly support and believe that Landscape on Window Phones is bound to occur.

 

[foxbat121]

Landscape home screen is a bad idea, as far as UX goes. That's why you don't see iPhone or Android has it either. In early days of Windows Mobile, especially the phones with slide out cameras, landscape home screen was there.

Imagine you lay the phone flat (or use a phone while you lay down) and try to launch an app via home screen while the screen frequently flip between landscape and portrait. That will be pretty frustrate thing to do.

 

[Georgi Ivanov3]

I agree that landscape might have not been a good idea with Android or iPhone, but I think Windows Phone is slightly different. Android looks really static as well as iPhone's start screen and it doesn't make sense to implement Landscape view as long as they don't add or support that many live tiles (except weather, calendar, YouTube maybe etc.). It would not add any value to them.
But Windows Phone, especially with 8.1 update, could do so much more on that matter. They said that they want to unify UI across devices, so Windows 8.1 for tablet for instance is the perfect example what could be done for WP devices. Of course not the same as what the tablet users get, but I could see much more pros than cons in a Landscape mode for Windows Phone.
Since last year, there was not many WP devices with large screens, but now there are plenty and more are coming, so I see a reason why MS should implement the Landscape view for them. Adding different transition settings, color changes or animation is what would make ur phone alive in any position u are using it.. Maybe it is a lot of work, but I think it is worth it..

 

[Ma Rio]

Landscape home screen is a bad idea, as far as UX goes. That's why you don't see iPhone or Android has it either. In early days of Windows Mobile, especially the phones with slide out cameras, landscape home screen was there.

Imagine you lay the phone flat (or use a phone while you lay down) and try to launch an app via home screen while the screen frequently flip between landscape and portrait. That will be pretty frustrate thing to do.

Just because Android and iPhones do not have that doesn't mean it's a bad idea. And about the screen rotating - YEAH, that's supposed to happen. If you do not want it to turn, you turn off your screen rotation. It litterally happens everywhere except in the home screen.

I think it's a great idea, especially if it's implemented as it is on Win8.1 now.

 

[nycny]

+920

 

[Kram Sacul]

Landscape home screens are for tablets. That being said I always found it interesting that settings and several other sections of WP are landscape friendly.

 

[gerbir21]

This is definitely a feature I would love to see enabled in future revisions to WP. I use my 1020 in landscape mode for Here Drive. It's annoying to switch to music or the phone dialer and see it in portrait view. Text & email adjust to landscape. This is inconsistent. It should be uniform across the phone OS and across the Windows OS'es since Win8 allows for this. If the live tiles rotated on the start screen for landscape display, that would be bonus.

For those of you who want to see this feature, please add your votes to the link below. Currently at 253 votes. Would love to see this gain some momentum so that it catches the attention of the development team.

Everywhere Landscape – Feature Suggestions for Windows Phone

 

[foxbat121]

Apps can choose to support landscape or not support due to various app design concerns. It is not up to OS to enforce that. The developer has to design a different layout for landscape and sometimes it is just not feasible.

 

[ncbenr]

How about a WP start screen that is a panorama similar to Windows 8 and would therefore work in either portrait or landscape. For an example see this this photo of the Thinkpad 8. For WP, eliminate the surrounding space and start text, etc. Seems more logical for future WP RT convergence.

 

[cocotutch]

As a new one to Windows Phone I genuinely hope that Landscape support is not included on the Start screen. Though I could see it working if you scrolled horizontally rather than vertically in that orientation, in order to suit ALL devices, I think it'd just be overkill.

 

[Ygglens]

Android does have landscape in all it's menus, but companys like HTC and Samsung disables it in their skins... You can enable it, if you want to, on all Android phones, and it's actually a feature I miss from my older phones, like the HTC One X, and the Google Nexus.

 

[ScottGeek]

It would be nice to have the start screen to allow for the option to go into landscape on WP... the 16:9 aspect ratio works well in landscape and as seen on the Surface RT doing live tiles on landscape/portrait...doable workable... yeap.

Indeed there are design concerns when it comes to putting things on the screen that developers have to manage... It's nice that the WP platform gives the developer lots of choice in this regard. You can support either mode only or both... and you do have to make sure that your app looks good the orientation you what to support (it's actually easy to do that)...

But the Start Screen not having a landscape option on say a Luma 1520? that 16:9 6" screen? I'm thinking I would like to see more larger tiles across the 16 part of the 16:9 ratio. Less scrolling more live parts to the bigger tiles. Yeap.

~ScottGeek

 

[iyae]

This would be easy. The tiles don't even need to rearrange, just turn it sideways, the tiles remain exactly the same, but the icons and text rotate. Easy.

 

[T Moore]

I hope they have better things to do.

 

[iyae]

I hope they have better things to do.

Come on man.