Microsoft today announced the availability of the LinkedIn mobile app for Windows 10. But PC users are complaining that it’s just a wrapper of the website. And Windows phone users are complaining that it doesn’t run on Mobile.
Yep. Another little controversy here in Redmond-land.
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“Starting today, LinkedIn for Windows 10 PCs will begin to roll out in the Windows Store,” a Microsoft representative told. “The app includes features like the Action Center and Live Tiles, giving consumers real-time notifications including new messages, trending news and timely updates from their network. Additionally, the LinkedIn app will be available internationally in 22 languages.”
I recently mentioned that Microsoft was retiring LinkedIn for Windows Phone in Thurrott Now (a Premium site feature). There’s no real surprise there, given the death of that platform. But it is just a bit odd that Microsoft would make a UWP version of the LinkedIn app that doesn’t work on Windows 10 Mobile.
But then the LinkedIn app isn’t a “real” UWP app. It’s a bridge app that appears to use Microsoft’s Hosted Web Apps (Project Westminster) technologies. I assume the LinkedIn website works fine on Windows 10 Mobile. But that won’t have the native platform features Microsoft notes above, like real-time notifications.
Maybe in the future, as a Progressive Web App, it will.
Stooks
<p>"<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Windows phone users are complaining that it doesn’t run on Mobile"</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Exactly what can Microsoft do more to let these people know that Windows Phone is dead?????????????</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">They don't make the phones anymore. It is very hard to get the remaining phones compared to other phones. They basically laid off the entire Windows Phone team. They never talk about it anymore.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Time to move on.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">As the app goes, unless they whole thing, data and all, is running on my PC, say like Word with a local document then a web wrapper is just as good as a local app, even better really because updating it is simple. When every bit of the content is in the cloud…who cares.</span></p>
Stooks
<blockquote><a href="#147563"><em>In reply to SvenJ:</em></a></blockquote><p>LinkeIn has always been a website. Sure an app on a mobile device makes some sense because of the need to format for the size and all. Even that said what does the Linkedin app do on Android/iOS…pull all of its information from the cloud/web.</p><p><br></p><p>Locally installed apps need to be full UWP apps if they are moved from win32 to UWP. Games and things like Quicken/Quickbooks or Photoshop, Autocad, full Office apps etc. Those can run with out ever needing to touch the cloud/web. There are many advantages in converting your Win32 Apps to full UWP.</p><p><br></p><p>Things like Facebook, LinkenIn, Netflix, Amazon Prime…..basically anything that has to get all of its data from the cloud and you are just basically consuming it for the most part and today you do that via a web browser on a Windows PC, could be a UWP wrapped web app. There are some advantages to it, just like what Chrome does to say Google photos on Windows. Eventually (big IF) if UWP takes off then all apps, web wrapped, bridged and full UWP can be had from one location, the store.</p>