Windows 10 apps vs WP8.1 apps: Which are better?

[anon(5725119)]

Just thought I'd make a thread where apps from Windows 10 are compared to their Windows Phone 8.1 counterparts, to see if they've progressed/regressed AS OF NOW i.e. I'm determining this on what the app is like right now. I know Photos will eventually have pivots and working albums, but right now it sucks.

Better
Alarms & Clock ? Many features added.
Calculator ? Many features added.
Camera ? Compared to old camera app, the new one is better in terms of UI. In terms of photo quality, it?s the same.
Microsoft Edge ? I prefer this to IE. Seems faster. And I like the UI.
Office ? Better in pretty much every way.
Phone ? Looks better. Smart dialler is a welcome addition. Not much else to say.
Settings ? Looks way better.

Worse
Cortana ? Looks ugly, and I can?t think of any new features or improvements.
Games ? Doesn?t even work for me. Pretty useless. I hope they remove it.
Messaging ? I think there should be a toggle for contact pictures being displayed. If you don?t have contact pictures, this app is really ugly.
OneDrive ? Uploads don?t really work.
Outlook Calendar ? Needs a dark theme and week view. These are two big features for me.
Outlook Mail ? Loads more features, but again, needs a dark theme. Also needs linked inboxes, and easier method of switching between accounts. Apart from that, I think this is far better, but those are important features for me.
People ? Everything about this app is worse. Circles, I can live with. But they?ve removed history, What?s New for groups, send message on twitter, post on wall etc.
Photos ? it WILL be better when it?s finished, I?m sure, but right now the navigation sucks and the app is too slow.
Store ? Looks much better, but lacks Last Updated and Version Number info. These are really important. When it gets these, I think it will be better than the old store.

Same/undecided
File Explorer ? I never used Files on WP8.1.
Film & TV ? Never use.
FM Radio ? Never use.
Groove Music ? Tough one. It?s much faster. But in terms of navigation, it?s really poor. And you can?t edit the now playing playlist, which sucks.
Maps ? Haven?t used the Windows 10 version.
Podcasts ? Never use.
Xbox ? Never use.

I think OneDrive, Outlook Calendar, Mail, Photos and Store will all eventually end up better than the WP8.1 versions. Cortana, Groove, Messaging and People all have the potential to be better, but I don't know where Microsoft is headed with these.

Of course, this is all my opinion. What do you guys think?

 

[xandros9]

I'm OK with Cortana, I liked the previous design though.

Messaging is OK, does the job.

I like how the OneDrive app is dark theme compatible now.

I would like more colors in Outlook Calendar.

People needs work. I like the design, the circles on the tile are growing on me, but it still needs functionality work I think?

Store - performance still isn't up-to-snuff IMHO and I'm left wondering if a command registered or not.

File Explorer is just that. I think its prettier though.

I like Groove, it just about has everything I want and as long as its polished up right, I will love it.
Flows well, swipe to skip and the playlist view is well done, including a gesture to open it. Reminiscent of BB10's music player, which I liked.

 

[anon(5725119)]

Bump

 

[jhoff80]

I miss the unified inbox as much as anyone else, but I don't really know how anyone could say that Outlook Mail is worse than 8.1 Mail. Other than that, it is ridiculously far ahead of the 8.1 version.

Calendar is probably about even I think. I don't like how only a single line is used to designate events in the mini-month thing. It doesn't give you a sense of how busy a day is. At the very least I'd like multiple colored lines (one for each event). I like this live tile better, though. As for week view, rotate your phone into landscape.

Maps is also far better in 10. Instead of having Bing Maps, Here Maps, Here Drive, and Here Transit on a device, with the new Maps app everything is built into one great experience.

Agree with OP that People is far worse. No more history with my contacts? And the colored background screens look terrible.

I miss the "manual sync" button in Groove, but other than that I like it more than Xbox Music.

Podcasts is identical.

Xbox is better in most ways than SmartGlass, except you can't use your phone as a keyboard for the console (important for the "report a problem" part of the Preview program), and you can't use the Xbox app for in-game SmartGlass stuff like Madden's 'CoachGlass' feature, or Dead Rising 3's in game phone.

Games isn't part of Windows 10 from what I can tell. It only carries over with your upgrade.

For Cortana, they've added package tracking, so that gets rid of my using a separate app for that.

 

[anon(5725119)]

I miss the unified inbox as much as anyone else, but I don't really know how anyone could say that Outlook Mail is worse than 8.1 Mail. Other than that, it is ridiculously far ahead of the 8.1 version.

I think it's mjuch better in terms on email composition, but I use it more for reading emails, and I prefer the WP8.1 version. It was faster, nicer to look at and all the emails were formatted like they were on the PC. Emails with Outlook Mail aren't usually fomatted correctly on my phone.