About a month ago, we were informed that Amazon would be retiring their app for Windows Phone devices on August 15th. Following the announcement, we reached out to a couple teams at Amazon, both their customer support and their internal apps teams, respectively. The responses we received were clear: Amazon is working on a new app for Windows 10 devices. However, shortly after, Amazon’s Press Relations team contacted us to redact any previous statements made by any employees, claiming that they do not “comment on our [their] product roadmap.”
It appears that their PR team wanted to keep things under wraps, as it appears that Amazon, as we originally reported, is working on an app for Windows 10. According to WindowsCentral, the app will be a Universal Windows app, however, the downside is that it may be a Hosted Web App, using Microsoft’s Project Westminster. This means that it won’t be a native experience but it will include some Windows features, such as live tiles and notifications.
The development of the new app is just in the beginning stages and only being planned for PC. This doesn’t mean it won’t be for Windows 10 Mobile, though. As a Universal Windows App – and in particular, a hosted web app – it is very simple for Amazon to enable it for mobile support and highly likely that they will do so.
There are no details on when the app will be released. As mentioned, the company has only just started work.
In related news, Amazon is retiring their current Windows Phone app today, August 15th. Currently, it seems that the app is almost non-functional – it opens and some pages can be loaded, however, it is a very sub-par experience, with the login form facing issues opening the on-screen keyboard, as well as the overall app being sluggish. At this point, we recommend just uninstalling the app.
Share your thoughts on Amazon’s upcoming Windows 10 app and what you’d like to see by leaving a comment below!
