Tech Forum

As the topic says, whats the status of LDS Tools for Windows Phone?

I don't see any activity on this forum, on the wiki it says that the project is 'inactivated'...

Although Windows Phone market isn't huge, its been growing, slowly, but growing. Is there not any church developer that can develop for this platform?

I would love to have access to the source code. I'm a very novice programmer, but small changes are better then nothing?

Are you asking about the old platform called Windows Phone? That platform is not being worked on, by Microsoft, or by Church developers.

Or are you asking about the newer Windows-based phones, that use Windows 8? If so, see this post.

As a quick correction to aebrown's post: Windows Mobile is the old platform that is no longer being worked on by Microsoft.

Windows Phone is very much alive in Microsoft's field of work--especially with Windows Phone 8.1 on the verge of release.

It's VERY frustrating that the church has become so anti-Microsoft in the last few years. I'm no MS fan, but like it or not, businesses run on MS so I have a MS Windows 8 phone.

I'd sure like to see all of the apps updated with all of the features iPhone and Android have.

mallred wrote:It's VERY frustrating that the church has become so anti-Microsoft in the last few years. I'm no MS fan, but like it or not, businesses run on MS so I have a MS Windows 8 phone.

I'd sure like to see all of the apps updated with all of the features iPhone and Android have.

I understand the desire to have LDS Tools for Windows Phone, but I think it is a stretch to say that the Church "has become so anti-Microsoft in the last few years." After all, nearly every computer the Church uses runs on Windows.

And while you are correct that businesses run on MS, they do not appear to run on Windows 8 phones (almost 5%). The development of LDS Tools for mobile devices seems to be concentrated on Andoid and iOS, which provide the bulk of the market share.

I do believe development work is being done for Windows phones. But I do not know how much or any other details.

The development teams (even for Android and iOS) are very small. For example, the LDS Music app for iOS development team is currently one church employee (who also works on Gospel Library), one church service missionary (who has a young family, a demanding job, and a stake calling), and a few off-and-on volunteers. I don't know the specifics of who is working on the other apps, in other platforms, but I'm thinking there are probably about 10 church employees who work as app developers for all the apps that the church produces for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry (if someone knows more accurate statistics, feel free to correct me). From time to time there may be other small teams organized for special projects, such as the recent Family History apps.

sbradshaw wrote:From time to time there may be other small teams organized for special projects, such as the recent Family History apps.

The Family History apps are developed by an entirely different department, so what you said doesn't apply to FH. But I think you're fairly close on the other apps. The Windows apps teams are much more volunteer oriented than the Android and iOS apps, which are pretty much done by employees.