I became a Microsoft MVP for Windows Phone Development last October. I worked hard for it and I am very happy to have been nominated by so many great developers. I feel that, one of my duties, as an MVP, is to speak for developers. I have, at times, had the opportunity to speak to people at Microsoft that are closely involved in the Windows Phone and the Developer Tools for Windows Phone and one of those times is coming up at the MVP Summit that I will be attending in Redmond at the end of this month.
So, what would you say or ask for, if you were given the chance to talk with people on those teams? Leave a comment, or two, or twenty and I will do my best to convey the whole message to the people at Microsoft. I have seen that they are listening, tell me what to say.
Hi Atley, nice to see your post.. Here are what i think should change and also should be included :
1: FontPicker / Chooser
2: More Apps display screen using Marketplace task to display more apps from the same company
3: The arrow button on the top right of the start screen. Its annoying.
Saraf,
Thanks,
I want to make sure I have these correct.
1. FontPicker = are you talking about having a chooser to change all the fonts on the page?
2. I like this idea… The idea of a Chooser or Task to collect a list of all the other apps by the current app’s developer. Is that what you mean?
3. What would you change the arrow to?
1: FontPicker : What i meant was a chooser control to allow user to choose a font. This will be used my developers. The chooser will simple return the select fontfamily.
2: Yes its exactly what i mean.
3: I would prefer not to have any arrow at all. Simple swiping the screen from right goes to the app lists. Why do i need a arrow there. It looks so out of place.
Perfect, I know exactly what you mean! I understand what you mean about the swipe too….
Thanks. Also sorry about those grammar mistakes. I just realized, the spelling correction did a complete mess of what i had written 🙂
Hi saraf,
You can link your users to all your current apps with a simple MarketplaceSearchTask. Enter your publisher name as the search string. See how I did it in my latest app below by going to the Support Page.
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/3db6790f-58d0-45ce-9515-e02042089e05?wa=wsignin1.0
I do this in all my apps and lets the success of one app help support my new ones.
Hi Lancelot,
Even i am using the same approach, but i wanted a more inbuilt chooser type of control that will display the list of apps within the app.
Very cool idea, thanks for sharing!!!
Hi Atley,
Thanks for the initiative!
It would be great to see more functionality allowed (unlocked) in the emulator:
– People hub (it’s possible to get to it by some indirect way, but is should be natively available at the Start screen); it should be up to the developer to decide which information (e.g. e-mail account) to set it up with.
– Similarly, ShareStatusTask should be available on the emulator, to allow testing of social networks integration.
From the controls perspective, I’d like to see a native NumericUpDown; Telerik’s one is – let’s admit – not a top notch one, and its customization potential is somewhat limited.
And, obviously, as I already told you, App Hub registration (specifically, adding the Credit Card step) was a serious pain in the… various body parts.
Finally, the certification process…
– It would be great if it took less time.
– It should be possible to update app details (such as description) without having to re-certify it.
Please let us know how it went when you’re back 🙂
+1 on the App Hub and the registration process. And I don’t like their dashboard, data is not really up to date and even with only 1 app in the market place, it’s a pain to find what I’m looking for (i.e. latests review, whatever languages/country it came).
Alex,
You can update your app’s Metadata without having to resubmit the app. Go to your app’s description in AppHub, select “Edit Catalog Details”. Even though it looks like you are resubmitting the app, you are only waiting on a test team member to OK the content of your app description (they still have to curate the description, this prevents devs from circumventing the initial approval).
All excellent points, I will definitely talk about these.
As for the Telerik NumericUpDown, what would you change about it? I’ll talk to them and suggest it.
I’d like to have API for WP7 for accessing videos stored in music+videos hub. Currently it’s not available, I can only access music and pictures.
I had an idea for creating video player with subtitles, but I can’t.
Good point, seems like a logical progression of the API set. Thanks!
Thank you Atley for the opportunity! You are certainly earning and worth your MVP!
I would like to see the following:
Developer
-Ability to add code/change the text on the LockScreen. I should be able to use some of the realestate IMHO.
-Finer multi-tasking granularity, 10/20s every half an hour just don’t cut it IMHO.
-As an app dev, I would like to see reviews/ratings emailed to me when they’re added. Right now there’s not EASY (ie < 2/3 mouse clicks) to get those reviews, it's a lot of work.
End User
-BETTER/EASIER/faster integration with Outlook on your own desktop. I don't care what MS' excuse is NOW for having to go through Hotmail, I don't like it. I want MY contacts/calendas/ToDo lists to go directly to my phone. Period.
-I would LOVE to be able to see app reviews from the start screen (when you click'n'hold on an app you see the pin to start, rate and review and uninstall, I would like to see other reviews when I goto the review screen). Before I put in comments, I want to see if others have beaten it like a dead horse.
-Let me mark an app to watch in the marketplace. Why? Cause I don't like how one app works, BUT I would like to try it again when/if a patch/update is released.
-Better email integration. Why do I STILL have to manually export/install ssl certificates? iPhone doesn't…DOH! yup, I went there, sorry, but this is a sore point.
-BRAG more about how easy it is to develop for the phone, get more people developing, get more apps out there.
-Train the carriers! Why are we STILL seeing blogs/reports about how Rogers/Bell/Telus people aren't selling/pushing WP7? Just not right.
These are just some that come to mind which I would LOVE MS to know about. Thanks again.
Do you think that the user should be able to set their own message on the Lock Screen? (If found call ———- for example)?
I can agree and disagree with the multi-tasking (which is 15s each run on Periodic) doing it much more often will kill battery life, either that, or they would have to greatly reduce the number of apps that could access it. I think that the problem here is the battery manufacturers, not the OS, they are doing the most with what they have. Will bring it up of course, anyways.
I agree with the point about the reviews. I also think that there should be a way to open a dialog with the users as well. I know it would have helped greatly in a couple of my apps.
As for Outlook, I think that has been brought up a number of times and I am curious to see how that plays out.
I think I would like to be able to manage an App from the Start Screen as well…
An Update notifier of apps that you don’t have installed would be cool!!!
Others have said the same thing, I haven’t experienced it myself, but it is definitely a sore point.
Don’t get me started on the Microsoft Marketing… IMO it can be summed up in three letters and they’re not good 😉
The carrier story is another sore point with me that will definitely get some time…
Thanks for taking the time, these are all excellent points!
LOTS of replies! That’s awesome! Lots of good things to go bak to MS with! Thanks for taking the time to aggregate and bring to MVP summit!
re Sore points?
Bring your hockey gloves and just threaten to “Drop’em” if they don’t want to hear you out! hahaha (I can’t go and do that cause well, I would likely get suspended! DOH!)haha
Have a good trip.
I know this is a bit out of scope. But I would love to see the start screen tiles change with the orientation of the device.
It seems a bit like the iPhone when the main screen doesnt change with the orientation of the device. I can understand the problems with bigger tiles (pictures, calander etc) but this is something that can be worked out!
You know, I’ve never thought of that, but it would be a pretty cool feature! nice idea.
Excuse the greed, but I might as well add these…
Why are there any decent built in Apps for Timers, World Clock, youtube, Weather ( I know there is one, but it sucks big time!) and other standard out of the box features that we’ve come to expect out of MSFT.
I want a built-in ability to take screenshots. There are third party apps, but these are not very effecient and flexible.
…
Not sure that they would add those built in apps, I think that they will probably leave them up to third party developers… (Tell me what you want and I would be happy to put the app into my personal development cycle and build it) I will mention them as well, of course.
As for the ability to take screenshots, I completely agree that it should be an available feature!
As a developer I would love for them to expose access to text to speech services. I’d like to be able to create an app that can read text to the user.
From an IT guy perspective I’m annoyed that the email app doesn’t let me bypass the self-signed certificate warning. That means it’s easy to get my boss’s Droid to get email from our Exchange server but we’d have to spend a lot of money on a cert to make my windows phone pull mail from the same server. That’s just embarrassing.
From a user perspective I want voice control for Zune. My stupid old Juke phone let me say “play windows phone dev podcast” and it would start playing.
While I agree that Text To Speech would be awesome encompassed on the device itself, you can, however, use the Microsoft Translator Service on your Windows Phone apps. Here is an excellent example of this: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/259727/Text-to-speech-in-windows-phone7
I am not sure why your having that problem with the Exchange service on the Phone. I have my own and my company’s exchange servers connected to my Windows Phone and it was not really any problem. If you want, I’d be happy to connect IRL to see if I can understand this issue more clearly or to perhaps help you resolve it.
As for voice command of Zune, I am not sure if that is possible or not, it definitely would be good to be able to do… I will check. If it is, I’ll let you know how, if it’s not, I’ll bring it up!
Not really. The Bing/Microsoft translator stuff is going paid. You can get use of it for 2M characters a month for free, but over that you’ll have to pay, and dearly. As I explained to Chris over at Microsoft translator, 66 devices is all you get for free, even at only 1000 characters per day. If you want to support 1000 devices at that same rate, be prepared to shell out $300 per month for the use of Microsoft Translator. I asked Chris if the pricing could be adjusted if devs just wanted to use TTS, and the answer was no.
Hey Atley,
I would like to see the marketplace show download numbers for apps like they do in the Android Market. They show how many downloads each app has within a specific date range and numeric range. I think this would be useful for app buyers.
I agree and disagree at the same time. There is a possibility that users will be less likely to download an app if they see that no one else has downloaded it yet. I will, of course, mention it though.
I agree with Atley on this. I also believe that a potential download may be passed on if the numbers were displayed. I think it is more important to have the user reviews easily accessible. Perhaps show the reviews not just for the one app but related publisher reviews. As it is right now, if I navigate to an app on the marketplace, just the data relevant to that app is visible. If it could be set up so the selected app is the primary view and thumbnails of any other apps published by the same publisher were displayed with their review ratings it would be great. This would help the weaker (less downloaded apps ) if the review ratings for the other publishers apps were doing well. At the very least it would also group apps by the same publisher.
API to SMS…this is a huge deal.
http://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/110705-app-platform
and Visual Voicemail.
The problem with that is monitoring so that there are no SPAM apps made. There are huge issues with legalities and cost for users as a lot of carriers have fees for incoming texts in different parts of the world. I am not sure how this will be realized, but I will definitely bring it up, I have apps that I want to have this feature as well!
The iPhone has an api to sms…Msft needs to at least provide a limited API, primarily we can backup/copy the SMS messages and work with that stored data. This is the most requested improvement by developers.
Also, on visual voicemail. iPhone has it – and we need to start selling phones…so at a minimum, WP7 phones should be able to do everything an iPhone does….so then there are no feature objections to overcome in selling the phone, and the salespeople can focus on the metro design/UI, the Nokia build quality, and other unique features like Nokia Drive, Office, XBox Live, etc…
Thank you for listening to our suggestions!
The other day, I was trying to write an app. I wanted to record stuff and then save it as a wav audio file in the Media hub. However I had to shelve the idea because there are no interfaces to add new audio files in the media hub from within the phone. The irony is, you can add pictures to the media hub. This is a bit disappointing and I had to stop development.
I would like more interfaces to add audio files to the media hub from a WP7 app.
I agree, had the same situation happen recently.
Microsoft Ad payouts in more countries, such as South Africa
I know that they are working on that, there are a lot of legalities to work out with that. I do wish it would happen much faster though!
+1 for the time it takes to get an update to a currently published application a week seems a bit long to validate and publish for a bug fix or minor change.
And a question – is there a community out there that would test and give constrictive feedback on an application. I am new to the windows phone development and it would be great if there was a group/community that would be willing to try an application and give constrictive feedback – either before it hits the market or after. If there such a group that is great can you please point me to that group?
Thanks
I do see that the validation process is starting to take longer. I imagine that it is a product of the number of apps being submitted.
As far as the testing of apps or critiquing apps, that would be something that we should do as a community. I am always happy to look at a developer’s apps if they want to send me the XAP or put me on the Beta program.
Please talk to them about integrating micro-payments inside apps, it would be a great way for developer to make money, and increase the number of apps in the marketplace. Thanks
Someone else stated the same thing, this is a very popular subject for sure! I will be sure to mention it.
IN APP PURCHASES/DLC for all games/apps – (not just xbox live games)!
Yes, I am working on an app that would use that feature, I have had gone to a third party, but would much rather have a Marketplace-integrated solution.
We need better reporting! I want to compare my apps doing against each other easily.
That is a huge pain point for a lot of App developers. What kinds of reports would you like to see?
How about just a simple “total downloads” number? The place is should be is a 30 day rolling downloads number. One would think that one could look at the graph for that, but when a field says “most downloaded” one would think that means TOTAL. I’m sure other devs with more airplay can think of more.
While I fully support the points PHenry brought up, I’d like to add another simple (?) thing:
BLUETOOTH!
Is there anything WP can do with that besides connecting to headphones? I can’t synchronise with Zune through it (neither automatically nor manually), I can’t send stuff to another phone with it (files, pictures, contacts, appointments,…). This is somewhat emberrasing now, that I finally got all my friends to send me contacts, instead of spelling their number… 😉
I completely agree!!! Bluetooth could be a great resource.
Hello Atley,
-When a developer updates their phone software, the phone is deregistered as a developer phone. This is a nuisance that should not be very difficult to resolve.
-I may be wrong but it does not seem to be possible to view reviews from all countries for “1” selected app. I don’t mind having to check reviews for each app separatley, but it would be nice to group ratings for a single app.
I am still looking for a concise answer to my App Hub post re: Canadian developers and aquiring the ITIN number.
It is great that you are a voice for developers. Thanks for your dedication, and drive to not just be a voice but to help the development community with your time and effort.
Yea, that whole update thing kinda sucks for developers right now.
The grouping of all reviews would be good. I would also like to arrange them from worst to best… I want to see what is wrong or not liked so I can change it and make the app better!
Maybe we can talk offline about the ITIN number thing…
Thank you for the compliment… I am happy that I get the chance to do this. I think that we can all help to make the platform better and I am happy to do what I can do!
I agree with Gregor about seeing all the reviews in one place instead of having to listbox through every country. It’s an AppHub web thing change IMHO, not a phone thing I think.
My Windows Phone app is a dictation / recorder solution for doctors / lawyers / Insurance adjusters. From all mobile platforms this app is available on. Windows Phone is the only one that can’t E-Mail the recording as an attachment.
Yes, I agree that it would be good to be able to send attachments in the emails.
In my best Steve Ballmer impression:
Consumers, consumers, consumers!
Marketing, marketing, marketing (in Canada)!
OMG!!! YES!!! Definitely, IMO, one of the biggest problems with the platform as a whole!
We are in need of a kind of screencapture ability like the one Ben Riga is using on TechDays 😉 a must have for demo’s/ presentations.
Yes please!!! I, personally could use one as well!
I wasn’t able to read all the comments, so there are some repeats, may be.
For developers:
1. More tasks. And improving functionality of existing ones. For example, i really want to attach an image in Email task 🙂
2. Animation tiles – many want them to be enable for developers.
For users: actually, there is no to say, i like it)
What do you mean by ‘Animation Tiles’?
It would be great if you could have a look at WP Developer Feedback. http://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/110705-app-platform
That is very cool, I will look at that as well. Have you made the Windows Phone team at Microsoft aware of that? If not, you should!
Thanks for this opportunity to get a message across.
My one request has to do with background tasks, specifically for location aware tasks. I would like a subscription service where I can tell the OS to wake my app up based on where the user is. Sometimes waking up for 15 seconds every half hour isn’t what I want. For instance; my user is at work and not going anywhere for a couple of hours. Checking every 30 minutes wouldn’t be useful for me cause I’ll just yield control back to the OS. I want to know when they are on the move so I can run based on a set of parameters, when they leave this area, they enter this area, when they come to a stop etc.
I know keeping GPS on would be bad for battery, but I imagine that it would be easy to manage in that this location stuff would be active only when an app has asked for it. As in, I ask to be told when my user is on the move; my task then sits idle and is only invoked when my user is on the move and then I can get back to the normal periodic updates or I can ask for specific co-ordinates. Once my condition is satisfied, my agent goes away and the OS can turn the GPS off and not worry about my agent again, until next time.
The testing team could use some improvement, they seem to interpret the rules so literally that it becomes absurd. I’ve had problems with “violating MS trademarks” by using skydrive/messenger/etc. icons that are specifically distributed by MS for purposes of reuse within apps. I’m currently facing a problem with the lite version of my app being rejected for having a similar name to the full version of my app.
The first problem is usually resolved by going to the live-connect team on their own forums, who then have to contact the WP7 certification team, you can search their forums and find plenty of examples of this happening. Screw-ups like these just waste everyone’s time, energy, and patience.
Here’s one from me, as a heavy user of Windows Phone, I find it really frustrating that I cannot set the reoccurance of an reminder to be what I want. I feel that the following ones are missing at the very least:
15 Minutes
30 Minutes
5 Minutes before event
Custom
I have a major problem with poking around Zune actually. Maybe you’ve seen this? Pick a category, scroll down, down, down, waaaaay down, STOP! Ya, that’s the one, open up that one to look at it, look at the reviews…install it, good, now go back to continue looking for more apps after the one you ju…..wait, what? wait for you to scroll BACK down through all the ones you just looked at…ok, I’ll wait…down, down, down. waaaaaaay down. See the problem? haha
Do that a few times and you quickly stop doing it, which means you stop “poking around for cool apps in the marketplace.” Just a pet peeve of mine using Zune.
Hello Atley,
Perhaps you could present the idea of a Developers package to Microsoft.
How it would work:
When a developer signs up to the App Hub he /she is sent a package that contains all the required documents to complete the registration.
– Typically this would be document pertinent to ITIN registration for there particular country.
-The forrm document from Microsoft with an original signature ( not photocopied) as signed
by Todd Biggs
What also would be invaluable is a list of MVPs in their region
I realize that there are privacy issues to consider, but with the applicants authorization , notice could be sent to the applicants nearest MVP as a heads up that there is another developer in the developer pool. That way the MVP would have an opportunity to present invitations to events / training like you do.
I realize the App Hub does provide a wealth of information, and I believe that any documents that can be downloaded should be downloaded eg: W-8BEN and W-7 docs.
( save a tree )
But anything that requires an original doc or signature could be included in the package.
This is something that I ( when I first signed up) and I think any developer would not mind paying an additional nominal fee for.
I would love to see an MSDN app, for code reference etc, & a AppHub app to check download stats, app lifecycle progress & reviews whilst out & about.
And I want to build it…
Notification Hub!
I’m sure it’ll be implemented in Apollo, but some way to see all your notifications in an organised list. Could be implemented as an app tile, or by swiping left from the home screen to reveal the complete timeline of activities on your phone – calls, texts & all notifications.
I agree, that would be awesome!
Hi Atley,
A suggestion you may make:
If you visit the Dashboard at the Hub and you have no recent downloads…
The message “Once you have published some apps…. is displayed
Hmmm that’s just wanky! I just flipped over to the App Hub to confirm the statement,and now the statement is gone and its showing the same number of downloaded apps as before! Fun wow!
Anyways that was the start of the message. Inferring that you have no published apps!
Hmmm…
I think you get the gist.
Have a good one sir!
Finally a communication channel with someone who can make the things happen!!!
I’m a brazilian WinMo developer and I felt abandoned by Microsoft because there is a huge, large, big lack of devices in my country. I’ve migrated all solutions I had in WinMo to iOS because there is no devices WinMo or WinPhone in the market. I’ve missed at least 4 projects due to this lack.
Every contact I do got the same answer: “Its a fail of the moblie operators and device manufacturer.” I agree, in part, because I am sure thah if Microsoft decide to step in and encourage its mobile SO there will be a great market here.
Thank you! I am going to try to do everything I can to help the Windows Phone development community to create awesome and inspiring apps and user experiences for users worldwide. The participation of users like you help to make that happen.
I know that you do not have devices in your region yet, but you can develop and release the apps in other regions can you not? If you cannot, you should be able to!
As for the release of devices that use Windows Phone in your region, I know that Microsoft is actively pursuing all regions in the effort to spread the platfrom worldwide. If I get more information on devices in your area, I will be sure to let you know!
In-game purchases for any game (not just Xbox Live)
More balance between Live and other games and more granularity in game categorisation to ensure that related titles are actually related – the “related” panel when looking at my game on the marketplace just displays a list of Xbox Live titles that have nothing to do with my game
A live tile on the start menu displaying latest apps (similar to the “people” tile) using the categorisation of previously downloaded apps/games to weight what titles are displayed.
Cross-app file access
More up-to-date reporting on the app hub, and faster (under 24 hours) certification for existing titles – finding out you have had a crash spike five days after it started, then not being able to get a fix out for another five is a nightmare – ten days of bad reviews can destroy the reputation of both an app and its publisher.
All excellent ideas, I really wish they had in app purchases without having to use a third-party option.
I don’t really agree with the cross-app file access as it will open up file integrity issues for developers that are not currently relevant, but I will bring it up.
The App Hub is one of the weakest parts of the Windows Phone development experience in my opinion. I know that they are actively working on it, and I hope that they do update it to include the items you mention and more!
… also (forgot this, apologies) better multi-national marketing/promotion – in the year I’ve been developing for the WP7, I’ve seen a number of competitions to win WP7s that I would have shared with people – except they’re US only. The shop windows of mobile sellers in the UK are full of Android, iPhone and Blackberry and I’ve seen only two people with WP7s outside the development community in that time. Microsoft will need to push hard if they are to become a player in the mobile market in the UK
I think that, at least, they need to have something in the App Hub that showcases all of the available promotions and competitions with the ones for the Developer’s home region in focus.
I was recently porting my iOS app to WP7 for the 30ToLaunch and found i could not create/delete calendar/appointment entries. This would be a great feature to add in a point release.
I completely agree!
Allow apps to be a calendar “provider”. An app should be allowed to create entries that show up in the integrated calendar, just like live and exchange entries. Opening such an entry should deep link into the app.
Allow apps to be a contacts “provider”, by analogy.
Integrate all the Live functionality natively. Wrap the low level REST services into high level, meaningful classes (not the low level REST API we have now). Ask for user consent, but don’t ask them to enter their Live credentials.
Allow scheduling a background agent once at a given date and time in the future. Now we need to schedule a recurring task (which is sometimes too much) and it will run for only two weeks (which is sometimes not enough). Example scenario: I want to update a live tile locally at March 21 at midnight. Allow said agent to schedule a new background agent run using the same mechanism (for example, at midnight, March 21, I schedule a new run at midnight, June 21). Unlike in this example, it may be that the information on when to schedule the next run is not available until the moment the background agent runs. You may limit the number of runs using this mechanism to at most one a day, to save battery.
For users: allow tapping a reminder, and as a result deep linking into an app, when my lockscreen is protected by a pin. Ask fro the pin after the tap, then open the app.
Those are all great ideas! Thanks for adding them.
@kris you can create appointments using the windows live API (not on the phone, but will be synched to it later).
@atley glad you’re listening. If you follow @wp7dev, I’m sure you’ve seen my continued requests for letting us developers use TellMe as a webservice. i would love to find an alternative to my current voice to text provider for #ziravoice.
Ability to paste a number in the dialer. Why it is not already there?
Ability to read sms from apps and ability to backup and export them natively. If you need a dev to code this I’m available as I need this feature desperately.
I agree, there have been so many times when I get a number from a twitter app or another form of data that is not linked directly to the system’s Phone app and that ability would have made things much better.
Also the ability to have the built in Phone app also dial the extension that is entered into a phone number would be excellent.
Thanks a ton for taking a few minutes to line this all out for people. This write-up ended up being quite helpful if you ask me.
When in the HTC Flashlight app, the Bing button MUST be DISABLED!!
It’d be great if we could use a custom (overridden) page constructor to do proper dependency injection in apps. Like we can in ASP.NET MVC.
It’d also be good if we could run unit tests of assemblies from within visual studio without having to create libraries containing linked copies of files so they can run on the desktop. And no, unit test that can only run in the emulator take too long to run and are too likley to end up tightly coupled to parts of the framework.
Can we also have proper support for installing the tools on a server so we can integrate with existing build servers.
Help us to apply good software development practices without having to jump through hoops to do so. If it’s easier, surely more people will do it and in turn that will raise the quality bar.
I completely agree.
Is it possible to associate an application with file types (similar to what can be done in the desktop Win OS)? For example, by default, when a PDF file is attached in a mail, clicking on the file will open Acrobat Reader.
I want to write an application that can be associated with any file type (either by a context sensitive menu or by browsing and tapping on the file).
I dont think such an option exist, but Adobe Acrobat manages to do so. How are they doing it?
My intention is to write an application that will open any file, do some processing with it and generate a processed output.