![]() The days of app developers being platform-centric are fading away. With Microsoft bringing XAML Islands to Win32, or Fluent Design Language to iOS, Android, and the web, it's clear Microsoft wants to be the one-stop developer house for all developers. Nothing has changed regarding UWP, but how we talk about it changed years ago Developers have been porting apps, bringing new languages, emulating, sandboxing, scripting for years. Windows never really had a primary dev platform (Win32 was close) because of the open nature of the system. I don't get all the "this needs to beat that" and stuff. Why does it need an identifier? The more the walls separating these different Windows development platforms crumble, the more developers needs can be met where they are, with their existing code, that can evolve, mix and use whatever works best. Sharing his opinion on the matter, Matt Velloso, Technical Advisor to the CEO at Microsoft, had this to say: Instead, the company wants developers to use whatever tools they have to bring apps and games to Windows 10 and the Microsoft Store. The company is not shying away from UWA or even UWP, but they are backing down from the "all or nothing" mantra. Under Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the company has been moving to an inclusive approach to the company's structure, services, and yes, app development. Toss in support for XAML Islands, React Native, Electron, or being able to use Chrome's JavaScript engine for Progressive Web Apps (PWA) for good measure. For Microsoft, the future isn't only about UWA, but about WPF, Win32, and WinRT too. This point brings us to where Microsoft is going with all these changes today. Open up to devs Just call 'em Windows Appsįrom Build (2019) "State of the Union: The Windows Presentation Platform" But that started to change, and it was especially prevalent at Microsoft Build this year, where the company took a more conciliatory approach: we'll meet developers wherever they are. It's true that Microsoft did not make it easy for developers to port to UWP and create UWAs. With missing APIs and features even if developers wanted to port a mapping app over, if the mapping API was incomplete, or lacked features they needed, there was little motivation to do so. Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet got as much from Kevin Gallo, Corporate Vice President of the Windows Developer Platform, who said "we shouldn't have gone that way" noting the eventual Win32 and UWP divide that it caused.Ĭase in point, UWP could not match the power of 20+ years of Win32 development - it was too green. (Apple and Google are ironically running with the idea now.)ĭevelopers bristled at the move. Instead, it failed and with it the broad ambition of UWA. To be fair had Windows 8, PC tablets, and Windows Phone taken off UWP and UWA would be heralded as ahead of its time. Microsoft will meet developers wherever they are regardless of dev platform. This approach was all-or-nothing and driven heavily at Microsoft's Build developer events between 20. The failure of Microsoft's Windows tablet and phone experiences is undoubtedly a significant contributor to the de-emphasis of UWP.īut one other reason - which Microsoft has been trying to rectify these last few years - was the insistence that developers convert all their "classic" Windows apps to UWA using UWP. Undoing the damage Microsoft's developer mistake(s) The decline and eventual loss of Windows Phone only made matters worse. Once Microsoft rolled back the new Start Menu experience in Windows 8.1 – and ditching it entirely in Windows 10 – UWAs lost momentum in PC. The original fiasco goes back to Windows 8 and its failed tablet strategy where UWAs were supposed to shine. Tom Warren, from The Verge, said, "This dream really started to fall apart after Windows Phone failed, but it's well and truly over now." I'd argue differently. This mixing of terminology was especially true during the Windows 8 days when even desktop PCs featured UWAs as the primary app experience. ![]() Microsoft has conflated these terms frequently, using UWP for shorthand. There's a difference between the Univeral Windows Platform and Universal Apps This distinction is crucial as we'll see below. Of course, what people mean when talking about apps like Microsoft News, Weather, Mail, and apps from third-party developers is Universal Windows Apps – apps that run across all three devices with few changes.Ĭonversely, the "universal platform" part in UWP refers to the shared APIs and resources that developers have access to when writing an app, not the app's hardware destination. ![]() Back then, the mantra was "three screens and a cloud" referring to Xbox, PCs, and phone. The Universal Windows Platform goes back to Windows 8, and it was meant to usher in a new age of Microsoft and computing. ![]()
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