Windows 10 Mobile Builds 14327 & 14328 - Messaging Everywhere
Over April 20 - 22 MS released two new builds of the Redstone branch for Windows 10 Mobile 14327 & 14328..
The big addition was the Messaging Everywhere Beta - so the ability to send/receive text messages from your Phone and PC. This was included with 14327.
So a little more on how this actually works. On the Receive side - the PC messaging app is now sync'd with your phone - if they share the same Windows ID. So any message you receive on your phone automatically shows up in the PC app as well. In fact it will show up on any all devices you have that your are logged into with the same Windows ID.
The one comment I will make is that the initial sync is not very good. MS only uses month/day and so you will suddenly see messages that are a year old. mixed in with recent ones. Additionally there is no sort capability - but you can search. Additionally there is only a conversations style view - not a true chronological view. So some work still in the app.
Now on the send side. So when you send from your phone the same sync occurs. On the PC side - when you first launch the app and set it up it asks for your phone. So when you send a message from your PC it is actually sends it first to your phone then out via your carrier SMS/MMS service.
So for Messaging Everywhere to work at all - you need 3 things.
First you need PC running Windows 10 at at least Build 14316.
Second you next a Windows Phone running 14327
Third both devices need to using the same Windows ID.
So there is no ability from the PC app to send a message without an associated Windows 10 Phone.
Additionally there is no setting tab or config for the app - so once you set it the first time - it is what it is. Now MS has added a new feature called "App Reset" in Settings/System/Apps and Features - but that to me is not the proper way to
support the app.
So obviously a lot of work needs to be done with the messaging app to give users more control over both the app and the UI. I hope MS follows through here. It's kind of a nice feature and I'm not 100% of all of the use cases since it is reliant on your phone to actually send the message - but we'll see.
Both 14327 and 14328 loaded and run fine on my Lumia 735. I believe the 14328 release was minimal and was just to get the Mobile and PC builds back on cadence. So far I have found nothing new with 14328 and in fact the official announcement didn't call out anything new for 14328 mobile.
Overall you can start to see the vision around Windows 10 Redstone. As I stated in an earlier post the challenge I see is that if you don't have a "Windows 10" specific phone and honestly I really mean a 950 or 950XL. Then some of the new features / capabilities start to loose value. Also as I have stated I think that the next phase of Redstone will pass by my 735.
So the question become are all these new features compelling enough for me to purchase a new Windows Phone. Unfortunately I think the answer is no.
While the 950 seems to be a great piece of hardware and the fact that you can buy a dual-SIM version is great - but the challenges of living with a Windows Phone day-to-day outweigh the advantages.
And even with new devices like the upcoming HP Elite X3 and recently announced Acer Jade Primo - which promise Continuum support, etc, MS has not overcome the biggest challenge to Windows Phone and that is the app gap.
Even with all the new tools and announcements at Build, the market share of Windows Phone has fallen to the point of invisibility. Even long time MS pundits like Paul Thurrott and Mary Jo Foley have recently switched to Android devices running Windows apps/services and some other journalists are calling for MS to dump Windows 10 Mobile for Android and continue to build their services on top.
As I've stated in a previous post - while I still use my Lumia 735 - My next phone will not be a Windows Phone.
The big addition was the Messaging Everywhere Beta - so the ability to send/receive text messages from your Phone and PC. This was included with 14327.
So a little more on how this actually works. On the Receive side - the PC messaging app is now sync'd with your phone - if they share the same Windows ID. So any message you receive on your phone automatically shows up in the PC app as well. In fact it will show up on any all devices you have that your are logged into with the same Windows ID.
The one comment I will make is that the initial sync is not very good. MS only uses month/day and so you will suddenly see messages that are a year old. mixed in with recent ones. Additionally there is no sort capability - but you can search. Additionally there is only a conversations style view - not a true chronological view. So some work still in the app.
Now on the send side. So when you send from your phone the same sync occurs. On the PC side - when you first launch the app and set it up it asks for your phone. So when you send a message from your PC it is actually sends it first to your phone then out via your carrier SMS/MMS service.
So for Messaging Everywhere to work at all - you need 3 things.
First you need PC running Windows 10 at at least Build 14316.
Second you next a Windows Phone running 14327
Third both devices need to using the same Windows ID.
So there is no ability from the PC app to send a message without an associated Windows 10 Phone.
Additionally there is no setting tab or config for the app - so once you set it the first time - it is what it is. Now MS has added a new feature called "App Reset" in Settings/System/Apps and Features - but that to me is not the proper way to
support the app.
So obviously a lot of work needs to be done with the messaging app to give users more control over both the app and the UI. I hope MS follows through here. It's kind of a nice feature and I'm not 100% of all of the use cases since it is reliant on your phone to actually send the message - but we'll see.
Both 14327 and 14328 loaded and run fine on my Lumia 735. I believe the 14328 release was minimal and was just to get the Mobile and PC builds back on cadence. So far I have found nothing new with 14328 and in fact the official announcement didn't call out anything new for 14328 mobile.
Overall you can start to see the vision around Windows 10 Redstone. As I stated in an earlier post the challenge I see is that if you don't have a "Windows 10" specific phone and honestly I really mean a 950 or 950XL. Then some of the new features / capabilities start to loose value. Also as I have stated I think that the next phase of Redstone will pass by my 735.
So the question become are all these new features compelling enough for me to purchase a new Windows Phone. Unfortunately I think the answer is no.
While the 950 seems to be a great piece of hardware and the fact that you can buy a dual-SIM version is great - but the challenges of living with a Windows Phone day-to-day outweigh the advantages.
And even with new devices like the upcoming HP Elite X3 and recently announced Acer Jade Primo - which promise Continuum support, etc, MS has not overcome the biggest challenge to Windows Phone and that is the app gap.
Even with all the new tools and announcements at Build, the market share of Windows Phone has fallen to the point of invisibility. Even long time MS pundits like Paul Thurrott and Mary Jo Foley have recently switched to Android devices running Windows apps/services and some other journalists are calling for MS to dump Windows 10 Mobile for Android and continue to build their services on top.
As I've stated in a previous post - while I still use my Lumia 735 - My next phone will not be a Windows Phone.
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