Microsoft Garage Apps: How They Come To Life And Why They Aren’t On Every Platform

( Inside The Microsoft Garage Development Area )

Every time a new app comes out from Microsoft, there are two certainties: I will download it and someone will complain if the app isn’t available on all major platforms. While ‘Microsoft’ branded apps are typically released in the Windows store and for iOS/Android, there are a subset of apps under the ‘Microsoft Garage’ name that have historically not reached all platforms.

Last week, when I ventured up to Microsoft’s campus to go inside the tents of the company’s largest hackathon, I also got to spend a bit of time in the Microsoft Garage, the company’s internal app and product incubator.

The Microsoft Garage is located at the company’s Redmond headquarters and is full of toys that help bring new products to life. Everything from CNC machines to laser cutting/etching tools and 3D printers are available.

Beyond the physical devices, the Garage also offers support and mentorship for employees who are building applications and extensions to either existing or new products. In short, the Garage allows employees to build applications or devices that may not be directly related to their career at Microsoft any time of the year while also being able to tap into the company’s deep knowledgebase.

Before heading up to campus, there were two questions I wanted to find the answer to: What happened to OneClip, the company’s universal clipboard application and why are Garage apps not available on every platform.

Unfortunately, my quest to determine what happened to OneClip is on-going but I was able to get an answer to why Garage apps are typically limited to one or two platforms when released.

It’s important to understand how an app is released under the Garage name. Not every app created in the Garage is released and the company sets guidelines how an app comes to fruition and is published under the internal incubators name.

The process begins with a team (or in some cases, an individual) pitching an idea to the Garage launch pad team who will vet ideas to make sure there isn’t a project in construction pursuing the same goal and to make sure that the project is obtainable with the resources available to the individual/team.

Once an app/hack project is approved, it will be given resources to help bring the product to life. This includes knowledge expertise, development milestones, marketing strategies and support lifecycle. If this sounds familiar, this is the same modeling strategies that are used in nearly every company to bring a product to market and Microsoft uses this model to ensure Garage apps maintain a high level of quality.

One aspect that is defined during the development process is the scope and demographic they are targeting for the new application. If the scope of the project is to gather data about the usage during a specific scenario, it does not make sense to build the app for every platform when they can target one ecosystem to obtain the data they need. It’s the scope and demographic that determines where and when an app will be released and is why a new app may not be on Windows and only show up on iOS.

It’s important to remember that Garage apps are made by small teams and to build an application for every platform requires more time to build and additional time on the backend to support the app. If the goal of the app is to test out a usage scenario for communication, then a limited release will be used as that will provide enough data to determine if the concept should be pursued further.

Once an app has reached its objective in the market, the Garage team will pull the application from the respective marketplaces and retire the app.

The next time a Microsoft Garage app is released and it doesn’t support every platform, you now have a better understanding of why this occurs with apps under the Garage banner. It’s not that the company is actively avoiding Windows or iOS or Android, it’s that each app has an objective and time requirements which means that they need to build in the most efficient way possible with the small team dedicated to the app.