14 DAY TRIAL // Following the official release of Windows Phone 8.1 Developer Preview on April 14, Redmond-based software giant Microsoft has opened the Windows Phone Store to accept applications built for the new OS version.
The company has made a series of changes to the Windows Phone Dev Center to add support for Windows Phone 8.1 to it, with some of them aimed and making app submission simpler and faster than before.
At the same time, Microsoft has started to accept universal apps in the portal, which will allow developers to have the same app available on both the mobile and PC platforms.
When it comes to the Windows Phone 8.1 package submissions, developers are provided with the option to continue using the Silverlight platform that features updates in the Windows Phone 8.1 SDK or move to the Windows Runtime and release universal apps (for phone, tablets, and PCs).
Applications that are already available in the Windows Phone Store will be automatically available for Windows Phone 8.1 devices, regardless of whether they have been built for Windows Phone Windows Phone 7.1 or WP8.0.
Developers needn’t do anything in this regard, though Microsoft does encourage them to add a Windows Phone 8.1 package to their apps, so as to leverage features introduced in the Windows Phone 8.1 SDK.
The package targeting has been modified as well, to make it simpler for developers to know which platform release their software is aimed at.
“For apps that have more than one package, platform version is used to target a package to a given phone. For example, if an app has a Windows Phone 8.0 package, it will be offered to both Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 8.1 devices,” Microsoft explains in a blog post.
“Once the app is updated with an additional 8.1 package, the 8.0 package will only be offered to Windows Phone 8 devices while the 8.1 package will be offered to Windows Phone 8.1 devices.”
The Windows Phone Dev Center has got through a redesign, aimed at making it easier for developers to find the documentation they are looking for. This refresh is based on the new approach to documentation that was rolled out at the BUILD conference.
At the same time, Microsoft notes that it has decided to enhance the Windows Phone app certification workflow even more, and that this will reduce certification times to only a few hours in most cases.
As for universal apps, devs will be provided with the option to reserve a name for their software in both Windows Phone Store and Windows Store, while also being able to link the two apps to create universal software.
Existing and new Windows Phone applications can also be linked to Windows 8.0 or 8.1 apps, which will provide users with a new, “get once and download for all compatible Windows devices” experience to all users.