Tech Forum

Where are the apps for Windows 8? I just upgraded today expecting to see apps in the market place. The amount was glaringly obvious. 0.

The church is a church, not a software company. The church needs to put it's resources where the priesthood department says the greatest need is. That's not likely to be a new OS that's just been released and probably has a penetration of less then 1% of the church membership.

I'm sure the church as a lot of company in the "no apps for Win8 yet" department.

If it makes you feel better, my day job is working with a software package with a starting price is $1,000 and is usually several if thousand if not more. Our bill for SWA alone is about $30,000. They currently do not have a version that's supported under Win8, much less a Win8 app. They're probably a few months away from that.

Just give it time. Like you I was an early adopter to Win8 but like many other new operating systems it will take some time. An LDS app for Windows 8 is inevitable as Microsoft's market penetration is typically quite deep.

I do feel that twinge of impatience creeping up but it has only been a couple of days.

There have been a few posts about Win8 apps over the past several months. Those posts have hinted that perhaps Win8 apps were being created internally since there has not been any community project created for building such.

If they are being built internally, fantastic - please let us know how the progress is going, and we'll promise to be patient. If not, then please allow us to create a community project and get to work. I know that there are many of us Windows developer that would love to put or skills to work and bring the great ldstech offerings to this new platform.

I apologize if I came across as brash. I understand full well that there is more at work here than analytics and numbers alone. And I am very grateful for that. I agree with adamscartwright's comment. If there is something that we as members can do it would be wonderful if we can start doing it. I personally don't have a lot to contribute yet as I'm just a fledgling programmer, but it makes me happy to see people ready to put their talents to use and there is an area that right now in all respects seems to have a need for it.

msheets wrote:Where are the apps for Windows 8? I just upgraded today expecting to see apps in the market place. The amount was glaringly obvious. 0.

This question implies that there is a list of LDS apps for Windows 7. Where would it be?

Win 8 is fairly new. I've seldom seen the church put itself onto the cutting edge of technology.
I'm sure that the brethren are aware the situation and will, as time and needs permit, work on new applications. In the meantime we need to be patient.

adamscartwright wrote:If they are being built internally, fantastic - please let us know how the progress is going, and we'll promise to be patient. If not, then please allow us to create a community project and get to work. I know that there are many of us Windows developer that would love to put or skills to work and bring the great ldstech offerings to this new platform.

The best information we have at this point is in this post. That seems to indicate that the Church is working on it internally. I've heard no hints of a community project at this point.

I wouldn't be expecting applications for Windows 8. The church has focused on creating mobile apps for several mobile OSes. I would think the church would have a Win8 RT mobile app before there are any specific apps for Windows 8. For laptop/desktop users, regardless of the operating system, the solution seems to be browser applications that are pretty good (although there's the problem of not supporting IE below IE 9). I use these browser-based applications nearly daily and don't see a compelling need to have custom applications developed specifically for Windows (or Mac or Linux).

The church does have some applications for ward clerks that run on Windows, but these are not available to the general public.

Is there something in particular you were hoping to find for Windows 8? Maybe we can help direct you to things that meet your needs.

mevans wrote:I wouldn't be expecting applications for Windows 8.

Windows 8 bridges the gap between desktop PCs and mobile devices according to Microsoft. I am guessing that the OP was asking about the consideration of development of the same mobile applications found for iOS and Android for Windows 8 on mobile devices.