14 DAY TRIAL // While Microsoft’s mobile platform altogether is pretty much dead, there are developers out there who are still partially committed to keeping their apps here alive, mostly by supporting the latest versions exclusively.
Facebook is one of them, as the social network maintains its Windows 10 Mobile app but has recently decided to abandon Windows Phone 8.1 completely.
In other words, if you’re still on Windows Phone 8.1, the official Facebook app will no longer work on your device, as the content no longer loads, though notifications are displayed. On the other hand, the Windows 10 version of the Facebook app is still there and working as expected.
The only alternative for Windows Phone 8.1 users is to load Facebook in their web browsers, though we’ve seen reports that even this workaround fails on random occasions. The content isn’t rendered correctly in Internet Explorer, and without Microsoft Edge, which is exclusive to Windows 10 Mobile, the only solution is to turn to a third-party browser.
Of course, options in this regard are very limited, but as it turns out, UC Browser, which is one of the few browsers still running on Windows Phone 8.1, correctly loads Facebook.
The death of Windows Phone
Developers leaving Windows phones isn’t a new thing and sooner or later, all of them would give up on apps running on Microsoft’s mobile platform. While the migration to Android and iOS is a trend that happened a couple of years ago, the move was accelerated after Microsoft itself confirmed there are no plans for keeping Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile alive.
Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore publicly acknowledged that no new features and devices were in the works, recommending those who want full app support and improvements to switch to Android or iOS. This is exactly what many people have done lately, leaving Windows Phone close to 0 percent market share.