14 DAY TRIAL // Developers saying goodbye to Windows phones isn’t entirely a new thing, but banks abandoning the platform without prior notice certainly is.
Because this is exactly what appears to have happened in the case of Deutsche Postbank, who decided to remove its Windows 10 Mobile app without actually informing its customers about it.
This means that whoever uses a Windows phone and is a customer of Postbank can no longer use the mobile banking app to access their accounts. As WindowsArea reports, customers aren’t allowed to log into the app and the download listing has already been removed from the Microsoft Store.
Somewhat odd is that Postbank hasn’t yet removed its Windows Phone reference from the official website, so if you head over to their page and want to download the mobile banking app, Microsoft’s platform is still listed as supported.
Android and iOS support
For the time being, however, Postbank customers have just one choice to access their accounts on a Windows phone: point the browser to the mobile version of the bank’s site. This is a workaround that many developers leaving Windows phones have offered, and even though it’s clearly not the most convenient, it’s very often the only chance to stick with a Windows phone without apps.
Of course, Postbank will continue to support its Android and iOS clients, so if you’re wiling to switch sides, you know what you have to do.
Windows 10 Mobile is currently in maintenance mode, so it only receives security fixes until Microsoft pulls it completely. This is projected to happen in mid-2019, so the platform will still get critical patches for approximately one more year, after which it’ll be abandoned.
Microsoft has already confirmed that no new features and devices would be released for its mobile platform, so sooner or later, pretty much all developers would wave goodbye to Windows phones.