14 DAY TRIAL // It’s not really a big surprise that Microsoft’s considering several major new features in Windows 10 Redstone 5, due in the fall, but a recent silent update in the latest Skip Ahead build made many people think that there’s a future for phone capabilities in the OS as well.
Windows 10 build 17650, which is currently available only for insiders enrolled in the Skip Ahead ring as part of the Windows Insider program, comes with the phone-related APIs, originally removed in 2017.
While pulling them from Windows 10 was more of a confirmation that Microsoft no longer planned anything new on the phone front at that point, re-including the API in the operating system has the opposite effect and is seen by some as an indication that Redmond isn’t done with mobile capabilities.
No new Microsoft phone though
But while the phone API is back in Windows 10, it doesn’t necessarily mean that Microsoft is working on a new smartphone powered by the OS.
Instead, there’s a bigger chance the company is actually exploring phone capabilities for its other devices, including here the Always-Connected PCs running on Windows 10 on ARM. These systems are powered by Snapdragon mobile chips, which technically already support phone capabilities, so Microsoft might be looking into ways to expand the features of its Always Connected PCs with Redstone 5.
At the same time, this silent update might be a sign that the Andromeda project advances and could come to fruition when the next major Windows 10 feature release is ready in the fall.
Andromeda, which has often been called a new mobile device from Microsoft, won’t be a phone per se, but a multi-form factor device that can play the role of a laptop, a tablet, and possibly of a smartphone. These capabilities bundled into Windows 10 could power the smartphone form factor, though once again, this is just wishful thinking for the time being and nothing more.