Microsoft announces universal Windows apps, which simply means that now apps will run across the Windows family of products: PCs, tablets, phones, and Xbox. This is a great news as Microsoft is the only software company to offer such integration and experience. With this new app model app developers will only have code once and their apps will run on different devices with little to no re-coding, since starting with the release of Windows Phone 8.1, all the platforms will share the same set of APIs, security and other resources.
The company also said that universal Windows app is coming to the Xbox platform, but didn’t mention when exactly will happen. However no every app released will automatically run on Xbox One, according to an Engadget interview with Steven Guggenheimer, corporate vice president in the Developer Platform and Evangelism group, said that the Xbox app ecosystem will be very carefully controlled and that a dedicated Xbox team will decide if the app will make it to the console, and Microsoft gets the last say on whether an app will be locked behind an Xbox Live Gold subscription.
Not to get confused here, Microsoft is just updating the Windows Phone and Xbox platform to support common Windows runtime (programing language), and the company isn’t yet announcing the merge of Windows RT with Windows Phone operating systems or Windows Store with Windows Phone Store, which may happen in a near future.
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].