Stealfully, the Windows team dropped the latest Windows 10 Mobile Insider preview to Fast Ring participants late Friday, February 19, 2016. Of particular note for the release is the jump in numbering for the build release, indicating that Windows 10 Mobile Insider preview build 14267 is in line with the Redstone preview releases of its PC counterpart.
Straying from the handful of recent cumulative updates to Windows 10 Mobile for both Insiders and non-Insiders, the newest build release comes with a few additions beyond optimizations.
Here’s what’s new
- Search for music easier in Cortana: We have made it easier to invoke music search in Cortana by adding a music search icon to the top right of Cortana. You can now open Cortana on your PC and click on the music search icon to have Cortana listen and search for the song that’s playing.
- Word Flow now works in the address bar in Microsoft Edge on your phone: For fans of Word Flow, we heard your feedback, and we have re-enabled the ability to use shape writing in the address bar in Microsoft Edge on your phone!
- Open InPrivate tabs more easily in Microsoft Edge on your phone: We take the need for private browsing seriously, and InPrivate has been a feature of Microsoft Edge in Windows 10 Mobile from day one. However, we received feedback from Windows Insiders that the InPrivate feature was either hard to find or missing on their phones. As a result, we’ve moved the button to create a new InPrivate tab to appear right next to the new tab button. The next time you need a private tab in Microsoft Edge, you’ll find it right in your tabs view. Try it out on your phone and let us know what you think.
- Improved Download Prompts in Microsoft Edge: Microsoft Edge will now show a prompt when you start a download, allowing you to cancel unwanted downloads.
Perhaps less concerned with what build number resides behind the update and additions, some Windows 10 Mobile Insiders are undoubtedly waiting for several fixes and bug squashes regardless of development branches. Fortunately, this release does come with a handful of fixes.
Here’s what’s fixed
- We fixed an issue where shape writing would ignore every second word when typing into a text box on a website in Microsoft Edge.
- After installing the Polish keyboard, typing a word that should be accented now offers the recommended accented word. For example – if you type the word “milosc” it should properly autocorrect to “miłość”.
- We have resolved an issue where you could not hide the navigation bar in Windows Phone 8.1 apps like WhatsApp, Twitter, Weibo, Flixster and others.
- We fixed an issue where videos recorded onto SD memory cards would result in a large number of dropped frames.
- There should be improved app launch reliability, and certain crashes that were causing the phone to reboot are also fixed.
- We’ve polished the Live tile animations and improved the logic for refreshing Live tiles.
- We’ve made reliability improvements for keyboards with large dictionaries such as the Hinglish keyboard.
Windows 10 Mobile Insiders should be aware that the update being pushed out now is strictly part of Microsoft’s Development Branch reported on recently. Microsoft’s Development Branch for Windows 10 Mobile Insider previews is an exclusive club for owners of Lumia 950, 950 XL, 550’s and the Xiaomi Mi4 unfortunately.
If you happen to own any of those devices and are seeing the update, happy downloading!
