Is it just me or are universal apps picking up momentum?

[Gregory Newman]

Microsoft's strength is in the Full Windows Desktop/Server/Tablet OS not it's smart phones businesses and Apps
Developers know this and make Universal Apps because they can run nice on a 7 inch Windows tablet right up to

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big Microsoft wall mounted 50 plus inch HUB Microsoft conference computer monitor hybrid. Microsoft is pushing developers and businesses to adapt to making Microsoft universal Apps because Windows 10 is now on 270 Million devices and more are coming everyday

 

[hasasimo]

Quick update: Since making that list a few days ago, Hive, Tado (both smart thermostats), Cineplex, This is Money (from The Daily Mail) have all released UWAs. These are all first-party.

 

[libra89]

Tell me when Mint comes back. I'll wait.

To me, the MLB app is important. I consider it important enough to change platforms (but to be fair, I have always wanted to see what this difference between apps on WP/WM and Android/iOS is anyway and whoa there is one). I might just be a fan, sure, but the way things are going lately, I haven't been able to watch barely any of the games so getting the play by play and such is great.

 

[Joe920]

Tell me when Mint comes back. I'll wait.

Right? That was an annoying loss. I tried the iOS version, but I found the WP8 and Win8.1 so much more pleasant. I still don't understand why they killed perfectly decent apps. I ended up deleting my account and looked at Prism, but I'm not sure I trust those guys enough.

Sent from mTalk, a great Tapatalk alternative

 

[Kerry2112]

It's funny, as a new convert to Windows phone (picked up my first in mid-February 2016), I just assume apps AREN'T available sometimes. Came as a pleasant surprise this morning, for example, to see a very nice Windows 10 app for Cineplex (an app I used all the time on Android). Don't know when it became available but the Cineplex website does not list a Windows Phone version on its Apps page, so it must be relatively new. A small positive sign but a welcome one nonetheless.

 

[Grant Taylor3]

I have Unstream running on all my Windows 10 devices Phone, tablet and desktop.

 

[DavidinCT]

That's pathetic, seeing that you can get updates on the Band 2, but not the W10M platform. As stated above, I won't leave the platform. This is definitely Microsoft's last, best chance for a meaningful mobile experience. Thing is, it's now to a point where you have to wonder which happens first--Consumers and developers catch on to the platform or smartphones start dying off?

Well, I have not LEFT the platform, I still have my ICON on my desk and I do swap out for a few days. In fact I am going back to it for the weekend (swapping blu-tooth over takes like 3 min).

After the forever waiting for even BASIC features that other phones have, I have changed my approch to this. Swapping time to time. Android IS a mess, it's all over the place, with ICON views, it might as well be an iPhone, just screens over tiles.

With that being said, It's not too bad. The Phone does what it does and for the most part, it does ok with it. The app selection is nice but, still maybe about 7-10 apps installed (8 of them are NOT available on Windows Phone).

I just wish Microsoft would get their stuff together here, years of waiting for basic features is BEYOND old now. Now another year where they are not doing anything ? LOL

 

[Keith Wallace]

Fair enough, it's just that your initial reply in the thread seemed to emphasize instability with your insider build. I think that's why most responses to you focused on that as well. Your subsequent posts expounded upon the other issues a bit more. You have every right to hate that MLB.TV is missing... not huge on baseball myself but as an avid sports fan in general, I would be irked too.

Yeah, that's because IM+ was a new problem that was a big deal to me. At Bat hasn't worked in weeks and was pulled. I wasn't subscribed to MLB.TV yet, so I didn't care. Like I've mentioned before, I don't use many apps, so when one stops working or disappears, you're talking a larger chunk of my phone's usefulness that goes away. IM+ is probably top-5 for me, in terms of most-used (the others would probably be Groove Music, TeamViewer, Unified Remote, and Messaging).

Well, I have not LEFT the platform, I still have my ICON on my desk and I do swap out for a few days. In fact I am going back to it for the weekend (swapping blu-tooth over takes like 3 min).

After the forever waiting for even BASIC features that other phones have, I have changed my approch to this. Swapping time to time. Android IS a mess, it's all over the place, with ICON views, it might as well be an iPhone, just screens over tiles.

With that being said, It's not too bad. The Phone does what it does and for the most part, it does ok with it. The app selection is nice but, still maybe about 7-10 apps installed (8 of them are NOT available on Windows Phone).

I just wish Microsoft would get their S.H.I.T. together here, years of waiting for basic features is BEYOND old now. Now another year where they are not doing anything ? LOL

It would be nice, yeah. I'm just not an app-driven person, so I miss out on more just by general exclusion, rather than because my platform choice. Even now, I can only think of 4 apps I'd like to get to W10M (Trillian, MLB At Bat, GAME Golf Live, and a Disney parks app).

Quick update: Since making that list a few days ago, Hive, Tado (both smart thermostats), Cineplex, This is Money (from The Daily Mail) have all released UWAs. These are all first-party.

I can honestly say I've never heard of any of those. What are they?

 

[Magikal]

Unfortunately, no.
The universal apps are struggling. They're way behind complete. The only one which is quite useful is twitter. Actually they've released their Universal app unexpectedly fast.
Facebook Messenger seems to be abandoned. Yup, there's been some rumors ever since October last year that Messenger is nearly there. 7 months later - still *nearly* there.
Facebook app is crap, despite Microsoft's desperate attempts to fix that - still buggy, still not useful.
Instagram made some progress by porting their iOS app to WM. Still buggy and unfinished.

Seems to me that everything is developing at a very slow pace, and that makes Microsoft lose even more customers. I still don't get it - one of the biggest IT companies, with almost unlimited resourses - both human and capital, can't fix the app gap. And don't give me that "its up to the developers" crap.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Well, I have not LEFT the platform, I still have my ICON on my desk and I do swap out for a few days. In fact I am going back to it for the weekend (swapping blu-tooth over takes like 3 min).

After the forever waiting for even BASIC features that other phones have, I have changed my approch to this. Swapping time to time. Android IS a mess, it's all over the place, with ICON views, it might as well be an iPhone, just screens over tiles.

With that being said, It's not too bad. The Phone does what it does and for the most part, it does ok with it. The app selection is nice but, still maybe about 7-10 apps installed (8 of them are NOT available on Windows Phone).

I just wish Microsoft would get their stuff together here, years of waiting for basic features is BEYOND old now. Now another year where they are not doing anything ? LOL

What basic features would this be out of curiosity? I haven't used iOS and haven't used android in a while so I'm not aware of "what I am missing"

 

[Grant Taylor3]

I am happy with the Facebook and Twitter apps that I have on the Windows platform.



I do not want their ads and suggestions crap that you get on IOS and Android.



I prefer to catch up with what is going on on Facebook and Twitter using the Windows clients.



I do not want Facebook and Twitter telling me what,I should be looking at.

 

[cracgor]

Unfortunately, no.
The universal apps are struggling. They're way behind complete. The only one which is quite useful is twitter. Actually they've released their Universal app unexpectedly fast.
Facebook Messenger seems to be abandoned. Yup, there's been some rumors ever since October last year that Messenger is nearly there. 7 months later - still *nearly* there.
Facebook app is crap, despite Microsoft's desperate attempts to fix that - still buggy, still not useful.
Instagram made some progress by porting their iOS app to WM. Still buggy and unfinished.

Seems to me that everything is developing at a very slow pace, and that makes Microsoft lose even more customers. I still don't get it - one of the biggest IT companies, with almost unlimited resourses - both human and capital, can't fix the app gap. And don't give me that "its up to the developers" crap.

To top it off, the UWP hail mary to fix the phone's app gap hinges on the need for PC apps to drive the windows phone store. While I use a lot of apps on my phone regularly (guitar tab, musescore, roku, quickremote, uptodate, medscape, khan academy, kindle, several chess apps, gpb/npr, pandora, amazon music, fxnow, hbogo, xfinity go, youtube, netflix, office suite, camera, chrome, facebook messenger, waze, wordpress, twitter, instagram, facebook, myfitness pal, fit, runtastic pro, synology suite of apps, banking apps, etc); I rarely use any apps on my Surface. I have downloaded and even paid for apps, but when it comes down to it, I use Office, Photoshop, and Chrome most which are just normal software. I have paid for FL Studio Groove and use it from time to time. Otherwise, I will use Netflix, FX Now, NPR NOW, and Audials Radio. Some things just make more sense in my life to use my phone for (myfitness pal, facebook, instagram, etc). When apps don't exist, it is normally just as easy for a pc to go to the website (like HBO Go).

 

[Grant Taylor3]

I tend to run the apps across all my devices Amazōn, Audible, Kindle, Groove Music, Grover Pro, PDF Rader, Office Mobile and a few others.




I do have full office on one of my PC's but everything else has Mobile. I like being able to start listening to a podcast on my phone and finish in on my desktop or tablet.



I like having the same apps across my devices. I do not run all the same apps on all devices but things like Audible, Kindle, Groove Music and Grover Pro are great to run on every device.

I also have the usual Facebook, Twitter and Windows Central on all devices.

Having the choice of what device to use is great. Before if I wanted to listen to a podcast I would have to use my phone or use a different app on the PC and have my phone out of sync.

Now I have a choice of podcast apps Cast & Grover Pro that I can run on my Desktop, Phone and Tablet.

It will also be great to be able to add the Xbox One to that list.

 

[anon(6078578)]

To top it off, the UWP hail mary to fix the phone's app gap hinges on the need for PC apps to drive the windows phone store. While I use a lot of apps on my phone regularly (guitar tab, musescore, roku, quickremote, uptodate, medscape, khan academy, kindle, several chess apps, gpb/npr, pandora, amazon music, fxnow, hbogo, xfinity go, youtube, netflix, office suite, camera, chrome, facebook messenger, waze, wordpress, twitter, instagram, facebook, myfitness pal, fit, runtastic pro, synology suite of apps, banking apps, etc); I rarely use any apps on my Surface. I have downloaded and even paid for apps, but when it comes down to it, I use Office, Photoshop, and Chrome most which are just normal software. I have paid for FL Studio Groove and use it from time to time. Otherwise, I will use Netflix, FX Now, NPR NOW, and Audials Radio. Some things just make more sense in my life to use my phone for (myfitness pal, facebook, instagram, etc). When apps don't exist, it is normally just as easy for a pc to go to the website (like HBO Go).

That has always been my contention too in that it's irrelevant that the phone shares the app platform with the desktop if there is no reason for it to be on the desktop in the first place.

I am guessing the assumption is that the desktop market will shrink and more people will be moving to Surface type devices where perhaps some of those phone apps might make a little more sense, although using a tablet at the Starbucks drive thru or tracking your fitness activities might still be a bit of a stretch :grin:

 

[cracgor]

although using a tablet at the Starbucks drive thru or tracking your fitness activities might still be a bit of a stretch :grin:

And this is why my one bicep is so jacked!

 

[Cruachan 11]

That has always been my contention too in that it's irrelevant that the phone shares the app platform with the desktop if there is no reason for it to be on the desktop in the first place.

I am guessing the assumption is that the desktop market will shrink and more people will be moving to Surface type devices where perhaps some of those phone apps might make a little more sense, although using a tablet at the Starbucks drive thru or tracking your fitness activities might still be a bit of a stretch :grin:

I take your point with this, but it must be reiterated that "desktop" Windows encompasses a huge number of form factors now. OK, no one is going to want a fitness tracker or a tap-to-pay Costa Coffee app on a traditional desktop PC or even a laptop, but the same version of Windows is on tablets like the Linx series (7", 8" or 10" screens) and as daft as it may seem to some people, we've all seen iPads used as cameras at the beach and even as mp3 players at the gym. Equally if you had said a few years ago that people would be watching "TV" (Netflix and such like I mean) on their phones you would probably have been laughed at.

 

[anon(6078578)]

I take your point with this, but it must be reiterated that "desktop" Windows encompasses a huge number of form factors now. OK, no one is going to want a fitness tracker or a tap-to-pay Costa Coffee app on a traditional desktop PC or even a laptop, but the same version of Windows is on tablets like the Linx series (7", 8" or 10" screens) and as daft as it may seem to some people, we've all seen iPads used as cameras at the beach and even as mp3 players at the gym. Equally if you had said a few years ago that people would be watching "TV" (Netflix and such like I mean) on their phones you would probably have been laughed at.

Sure you're always going to have devices used in all sorts of unintended ways, but using an iPad as a camera or mp3 player at a gym isn't actually that impractical, but using one while jogging etc as an activity tracker or a constant companion to your smart watch probably is.

 

[sd4f]

When apps don't exist, it is normally just as easy for a pc to go to the website (like HBO Go).

I think that's the problem with the platform, leveraging desktop users to get mobile apps is going to be a bit of a problem. Many apps just wouldn't make sense on a desktop.

However, I also wonder, if there was a choice of using a youtube app on a desktop, or just going into the browser, again, would anyone bother with the app? So it's back into that problem, will the lever be enough to entice app development? In some cases, definitely, but in others, probably not. Snapchat, google/youtube, valve, they're a couple of names that I know won't bother supporting UWP, and hence, no mobile app.

 

[hasasimo]

Just an update on this week's first-party additions... Fox Sports Go (huge for me!), Wattpad, giffgaff (a UK mobile network), and of course Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram. Of course, the mobile editions of Facebook and Messenger won't be ready til later this year. Kind of a bummer, and a reminder that UWP are "easy" but not automatic. But still, another week, another slue of new apps.

 

[msirapian]

Just an update on this week's first-party additions... Fox Sports Go (huge for me!), Wattpad, giffgaff (a UK mobile network), and of course Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram. Of course, the mobile editions of Facebook and Messenger won't be ready til later this year. Kind of a bummer, and a reminder that UWP are "easy" but not automatic. But still, another week, another slue of new apps.

How do you know FB or Instagram are UWA? Many blogs say that, but no official announcement on windows blog or by FB. I'm not sure they're using UWP, is there Osmeta tool able to generate UWP code?