Microsoft Delivers Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 14327

Less than a week after the previous build, Microsoft has delivered Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview build 14327, which features the first release of Microsoft’s new Messaging Everywhere Preview.

That previous build, 14322, was a huge update, with numerous new features. But this build isn’t looking too shabby either, though the biggest new feature is sure to be controversial. More on that in a moment. But first, here’s what’s new:

Messaging Everywhere Preview. As I wrote previously, Microsoft is replacing the previously-separate Skype apps–Messaging, Phone and Skype Video—with a single UWP app which will just be called Skype. This app isn’t available in the new build, but the corresponding preview release of Messaging Everywhere—which lets you send and receive text messages from your phone directly from your Windows 10 PC’s—is now available for testing. This one is a big topic, so I’ll be writing about it separately later.

Cortana in more languages. With build 14327, Cortana is now enabled for the Spanish (Mexico), Portuguese (Brazil) and French (Canada) languages. (These were previously made available in PC builds.)

Fixed issues. Microsoft fixed a number of issues in this build, none of which are particularly noteworthy. Check out Microsoft’s blog post if you want the gory details.

Known issues. Build 14322 likewise has a small set of known issues, nothing that looks super-serious.

OK, I promised controversy.

Back when Skype revealed that it was creating a UWP app version of Skype, the expectation was that this app would be the default in Windows 10 for PCs, but that the three separate apps would remain in Windows 10 Mobile. That’s because two of them—Phone (phone calls plus Skype audio calls) and Messaging (SMS/MMS and Skype text messaging)—were pulling double duty, and that kind of integration just makes sense.

But that’s not what’s happening. As Microsoft notes in the blog post announcing this build, Skype integration in the Messaging app in this build of Windows 10 Mobile has been removed. “This is so Skype can streamline your experience, replacing the integration with the Skype UWP Preview app for mobile in an upcoming build,” Microsoft explains. “In the meantime, you can use the existing Skype for Windows Phone app available in the Windows Store.”

In other words, they still don’t get it.