14 DAY TRIAL // Today, Microsoft made available for download a Developer Preview flavor of the Windows Phone 8.1 operating system, so as to provide app builders with an early look at the new platform release.
End users will receive the WP8.1 OS upgrade starting with the next month, though they can also grab it today, as long as they sign up for a developer account, as we have already explained in this guide.
The update is up for grabs through the Preview for Developers application available in the Windows Phone Store, and it will bring along not only some of the enhancements that the OS was unveiled with at the BUILD conference in early April, but also new tools for devs, it seems.
In a post on its official blog, Microsoft has provided a series of details on what the new OS release is all about, and it also confirmed that it comes to devices with a new reference app, called MSDN Voice Search app.
The new software was designed to provide developers with a glimpse at how they can integrate their applications with the new contextual voice capabilities available in Windows Phone 8.1.
“The app itself is very simple and straight-forward, surfacing the vast MSDN documentation library to you from the Cortana experience,” the aforementioned blog post explains.
“Once you have the app installed, ask ‘MSDN, what are universal Windows apps?’ while in Cortana and she’ll launch the MSDN Voice Search app and help you find an answer.”
Developers interested in learning more on how they can integrate apps into the Windows Phone speech and natural language experience should head over to the Speech Dev Center.
The team that built the new MSDN Voice Search app will make the source code for it available online, so that devs can see how they made it all happen.
Earlier this year, Microsoft made a series of changes to the Windows Phone Store, so as to list Windows Phone 8 applications as compatible with Windows Phone 8.1 devices as well, and another update for the portal will go live today, it seems.
Through it, developers will be able to submit apps that have been created specifically for the Windows Phone 8.1 platform. Moreover, Microsoft will be hosting a series of events next month to help devs get started with universal Windows apps, it seems.
“Even better, Windows Phone Store is also starting to accept app submissions and to enable app linking today – enabling you to bring the universal Windows app experience to your beta users and consumers,” said blog post reads.
With Windows Phone 8.1 available on their smartphones, devs can finally test applications for compatibility issues, which means that new and updated software might land in the Windows Phone Store soon.