14 DAY TRIAL // The highly anticipated lock screen theming application is about to come to Windows Phone 8.1 users very soon, but it won’t be available for everyone.
Initially one of the major features that should have made it to Windows Phone 8.1 Developer Preview, the lock screen app was confirmed not to be available for a while by Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore.
Back in mid-April, he said that the lock screen theming app would not be included in Windows Phone 8.1 Developer Preview and that it would come later on. Belfiore also mentioned that he didn’t know exactly when the lock screen app would be made available to Windows Phone 8.1 users.
Today, he is back with new details on the long-awaited application and lots of Windows Phone users will certainly not be happy with what he has to say.
Well, aside from the fact that he had confirmed that the lock screen theming application will be released for Windows Phone 8.1 early adopters very soon, he has also confirmed that it will only be available for 1GB RAM devices.
The application should be available in beta for a couple of weeks and only those who own Windows Phone 8.1 handsets with 1GB of RAM will be able to test and use it.
That’s really an issue as most of Windows Phone users own low-end devices with only 512MB of RAM, but as Belfiore puts it, “more powerful phones are more powerful and can do more.”
New lock screen app-- probably a couple weeks as beta for 1GB devices. A bunch of us are running it now, working on polish. dev-preview next
— joebelfiore (@joebelfiore) June 11, 2014
However, there’s a little hope for Windows Phone fans who own 512MB devices, as Belfiore has mentioned that it will probably come to these handsets as well, but it will be a while until then.
Obviously, this could mean that the lock screen theming app will never arrive on Windows Phone 8.1 handsets with less than 1GB of RAM.
The reasons seem to be pure technical, as Microsoft wants the lock screen to be fast and the low memory would not allow for that level of customization and performance at the same time.
In the same piece of news, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore has confirmed that new updates for Facebook and Skpe for Windows Phone 8.1 are in the works and will be released very soon.
Although we might have guessed this information as well, it’s good that a Microsoft official confirms that Windows Phone 8.1 users will continue to receive updated apps and lots of improvements in the next couple of weeks.
We will keep an eye out for any additional info on any updates for Windows Phone 8.1 apps, so stay tuned for more details on the matter.