More transparent tiles

[Ma Rio]

You probably know the frustration when you notice something cool, you start going towards it, and BAM ... nope.

One of those cool things right now are the transparent tiles in WP8.1.
They look awesome, and with the right picture it's a pleasure just to look at your StartScreen.

So you start mowing towards that. Aranging tiles, doing everything you can to make it the best startscreen ever, and then you realise...
"Hey... Skype doesn't have a transparent tile"

"Neither does OneDrive, and I really need that, so I can't just not pin it."

I almost raged about it, how stupid is that, come on?

Here is my startscreen

And the only thing keeping me away from happiness are a few apps.

Now, I get it that some companies (for example Digitaly Imported) do not spend much time working on their apps, and even they might get it some day.
But I really can't get why doesn't Microsoft make their apps tiles transparent.

Skype, One Drive (and the whole One family), Facebook, Twitter, Vine... the list goes on.
Right now I can only ask you to support these few suggestions on the uservoice site.

Suggestion 1
Suggestion 2
Suggestion 3

 

[James8561]

the way I see it, your start screen is pretty dam near perfect except for that one drive tile. just switch it to the bottom and put something transparent in its place

 

[Reebs Reebs]

the way I see it, your start screen is pretty dam near perfect except for that one drive tile. just switch it to the bottom and put something transparent in its place

Yea. swap it with the transparent email tile.

 

[ShreyansShah]

u can install "transparency tiles" app, which gives u many third party tiles for apps. and u can suggest it's developer for more tiles. he has openly asked to convey the app details, so that he can create the same.

 

[Rasetech]

Problem with the "transparency tiles" is that they are not live tiles anymore.

 

[ShreyansShah]

Problem with the "transparency tiles" is that they are not live tiles anymore.

u r asking too much. u want transparent tiles nd them to be live. it's too early to ask all of them. let the time pass.

 

[Jan Tomsic]

u r asking too much. u want transparent tiles nd them to be live. it's too early to ask all of them. let the time pass.

Really the only thing developers need to do is NOT set tile background color. It's less work keeping it transparent, OS takes care of that when you DON'T explicitly set tile background to some other color/image. So transparent tile in Skype, Skydrive, Music, Games is really a matter of one line of code.
They can be just as live.

 

[Rasetech]

I was not talking about transparent tiles in general, but about the tiles added with "Transparency tiles". And i think this is an important information for users of "Transparency Tiles" to know they loose the live tile ability when using the tiles from the app.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I was not talking about transparent tiles in general, but about the tiles added with "Transparency tiles". And i think this is an important information for users of "Transparency Tiles" to know they loose the live tile ability when using the tiles from the app.

I am glad you posted that.

 

[Ma Rio]

Meh, live tiles are a joke anyway. They were never so useful.
I'd rather go with a transparent non-live tile, than a colored live tile.

And if what Jan Tomsic said is true, I really expect all those stupid MS apps to have transparent tiles soon....

 

[ShreyansShah]

Really the only thing developers need to do is NOT set tile background color. It's less work keeping it transparent, OS takes care of that when you DON'T explicitly set tile background to some other color/image. So transparent tile in Skype, Skydrive, Music, Games is really a matter of one line of code.
They can be just as live.

ok i never knew that, it is so simple. alas, i had opportunity and time when i was in college to learn programming, and i never went for that.

Meh, live tiles are a joke anyway. They were never so useful.
I'd rather go with a transparent non-live tile, than a colored live tile.

And if what Jan Tomsic said is true, I really expect all those stupid MS apps to have transparent tiles soon....

someone is really angry with MS. cool down my friend. live tiles appeals some people, does not appeals to others. still it was an innovation, which created a stir in programming world. people started to think out of the box of stupid android, and learnt that google is not a sole innovator and not the apple.

 

[Ma Rio]

I took it into my own hands.

I started sending messages to app developers.

Right now, Digitaly Imported responded to me saying they are pushing updates to the iOS and Android app, but they'll be working on a live tile soon(ish).

I've made a suggestion on the Windows Phone section of the Skype Community, and also to HotOrNot and others..

Now we just wait.

 

[Nihalnova]

I think it's very easy to make any tile transparent for developers as previously on windows phone 8 we've accent colours for live tiles that's exactly what transparent live tiles are.. Developers needs to support their application's live tile for accent colour and it'll become transparent.. Hope soon we'll have transparent live tiles for all apps..

 

[Kram Sacul]

Meh, live tiles are a joke anyway. They were never so useful.
I'd rather go with a transparent non-live tile, than a colored live tile.

So basically an Android-like start screen with white static icons. Nice use of the OS there.

I really like transparent tiles in 8.1 but at the end of the day it should be an option for each dev to support and if they do choose to have a transparent tile there should be a toggle to either have a clear tile or use their own color/image. "Stupid MS apps" especially. This would please those that want all transparent and those that want a more balanced start screen.