Microsoft is working on improving the backup and restore feature in the Windows Phone platform in an attempt to “seamlessly get their phone back to a good state” after a disaster. In a recent job listing, Microsoft spilled the beans on what this new feature could possibly consist of.
“Come join the Windows Phone Backup, Migrate, and Restore team. Our goal is to ensure that no matter if someone loses their phone, drops their phone in a lake, buys a new windows phone, or just has their toddler wipe their phone by entering the wrong PIN over and over, a user can quickly and seamlessly get their phone back to a good state. The features we are producing will be new for the next version of Windows Phone and will help ensure Microsoft stays ahead of the competition when it comes to disaster recovery,” Microsoft wrote in a job post looking for a Software Engineer, spotted by WMPU. The job has since been filled.
At the moment, one can backup and restore a device completely by triggering the feature via a device update in Zune. However, there are third part apps that allow for the backup/restore feature but Microsoft has yet to officially support this feature.
There is a possibility of this new feature being present in the next big Windows Phone update, codenamed Apollo. One can safely assume that Microsoft will work on allowing for auto-backups to the company’s Windows Live cloud storage service. This type of integration would make sense to allow for cloud backup and auto restore.
A leaked Windows Phone roadmap was also revealed recently giving us details on what we can expect in 2012 on the newest versions of Windows Phone, codenamed “Tango” and “Apollo” and more details on LTE phones which will be unveiled at CES 2012.
Stay tuned as more about this feature is revealed.
Further reading: Microsoft, Windows Phone, Windows Phone 7
