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MICROSOFT HAS OFFICIALLY closed down “Project Astoria” – a software tool first announced in 2015 to help developers bring their Android apps to Windows 10 phones, tablets, and PCs.
It’s an abrupt setback to Microsoft’s effort to juice up its struggling mobile platform by building various “Windows Bridges”.
The idea was to make it easy for developers to bring their wares into the Microsoft Windows Store app market, helping alleviate its poor selection compared to the Android and iPhone app stores.
The other two Windows Bridges, Project Centennial (for old-school Windows software) and Project Islandwood (for bringing over iPhone apps), will proceed as planned, the company said in a blog post on Thursday .
Reading between the lines, it sounds like the lion’s share of developers interested in the Windows Bridges are at least partially working on iPhone apps already.
For those few Android-only developers, Microsoft recommends looking into Xamarin - the startup Microsoft bought yesterday for a reported $500 million, which lets developers write a bit of code once and run it anywhere.
News of Project Astoria’s shutdown doesn’t come as much of a surprise. In November, reports emerged that Project Astoria was on indefinite hiatus as its work-in-progress website was unexpectedly taken down.
Basically, Microsoft says in that blog entry, the developers for whom Project Astoria was intended found it to be an unnecessary addition to the Project Islandwood tool for iPhone apps.
“We have carefully considered this feedback and decided that we would focus our efforts on the Windows Bridge for iOS and make it the single Bridge option for bringing mobile code to all Windows 10 devices, including Xbox and PCs,” Microsoft writes in that blog entry.
Right now, Microsoft writes, Islandwood is best-suited for bringing iPhone games to Windows 10, with stuff like robust graphics support.
The new focus, with the demise of Project Astoria, is to expand it and make it better for bringing all kinds of iPhone apps over.
Ultimately, the real story here is that while Microsoft may have given up on Project Astoria, it’s still working really hard to bring as many games, apps, and tools to the Windows Store as it possibly can, as it works to bolster Windows 10 and get more people to adopt the new operating system.
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This was gonna be a big step for Windows Mobile as the OS is very nice and good to use but the lack of apps is a real deal-breaker for many.
It can only be good for us consumers to have a 3rd big player in the market so I hope MS do indeed get their mobile OS into more prominence.
What does this mean for snapchat on Windows phones? My sis loves her windows phone but really wants snapchat.
Most likely that they still won’t ever bother unless there’s a significant rise in Windows phone sales
Shame. Thanks for info
You can still use android apps on you laptop tho, download “bluestacks” emulator for you laptop and your sorted, ideal for using android apps like MOBDRO and SHOWBOX
I find bluestacks very sluggish and poor enough picture quality. Stopped using it as a result, Has it improved recently? A lot of people recommending it.
Good God, Microsoft’s desperate persistence with Windows Phone is like watching a slow-motion Train-crash. Considering the Billions of Dollars they have invested in trying to build a Mobile Market, it has failed steadily and spectacularly. Don’t even think the Zune was this much of a flop?
It’s actually a pity. My phone broke and I picked up a BLU windows phone for roughly 80 euro while I wait for a reasonable offer on something else.. Works better than any Android would at that price, and despite the fact I’m a pretty heavy user, I rarely notice any substantial slowdown due to slower hardware, an issue that lower price phones tend to be hit by pretty heavily. Windows isn’t resource intensive, and thus plenty of people would actually get away with buying cheap handsets and saving themselves hundreds of euro. Unfortunately the lack of app support, especially mainstream ones like snapchat, are an absolute killer, and are the only reason I wouldn’t stick with this phone in the long term. It must be said though, developers haven’t been overly helpful, banning third party apps without any will to build one for the platform themselves. It wouldn’t be a particularly difficult endeavour to build a windows version of the app.
Phew, nearly bought an windows phone as the apps were to be available, dodged a bullet
Just get a Mac it’s the future. Great life span and excellent battery life.
Nail in the coffin for windows phone
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