14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Phone (yes, it still exists) has only a few users these days, so there’s basically no reason to invest in apps running on this platform.
After a huge exodus of developers coding for Windows phones, and who decided to invest in Android and iOS where it actually makes sense, Google now appears to be doing the same thing.
The company’s search app no longer works on Windows phones, and whenever users attempt to search the web with the official Google app for Microsoft’s mobile platform, the process fails with an error reading “Connection failed. Try again later.”
According to a report from Plaffo, no workaround has been found until now, and there’s a good chance that it doesn’t even exist, so it’s pretty much the end of Google apps on Windows phones.
Google apps on Windows phones
In fact, Google has never been a big supporter of Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile, and the search giant refused to bring its super-popular apps on these platforms.
Apps like Gmail and Google Maps have never launched on Windows phones, and third-party clients that were created by other developers were banned.
However, given the current state of Windows 10 Mobile, Google’s decision makes total sense. Microsoft itself has already confirmed late last year that its mobile platform was pushed to maintenance mode, explaining that no new features and devices would be released.
Windows 10 Mobile will continue to receive security patches until mid-2019, after which Microsoft will officially retire the platform.
Needless to say, the number of users still committed to Windows phones is very small, and it’s unlikely that today’s decision affects too many people, especially because the Google search app has been rather useless.
Searching the web on a Windows phone is still possible from Microsoft Edge, but beginning today, we can add a new name on the list of apps waving goodbye to Microsoft’s mobile operating system.