Windows Phone 8.1 is one of the biggest updates since Windows Phone 8 itself and now we have all the stories that we need to give you all a complete one stop guide about it. The update has been on every Windows Phone 8 user’s mind since it wasn’t even officially announced and that’s not something to be surprised about, it deserves it.
Features
We have compiled a list of all the features that Windows Phone 8.1 shall deliver, you can go through it and be happy about what you admire the most.
- Action Center to hold all of your notifications, plus customizable quick toggles
- Cortana virtual assistant at your command
- Universal Search
- Start background on all of your tiles
- Customizable number of tiles per row – four or six
- Internet Explorer 11 with better UI, faster page load, in-private browsing, tab sync across devices and Reader mode
- New Dialer app with Speed Dial, shortcuts to contact, and call time
- Built-in Facebook with deeper integration, real-time notifications
- Redesigned status bar
- Quite Hours mode for control over your notifications at night or events marked as busy
- Move/install apps on SD card
- Automatic app updates in Store
- VPN support
- Wi-Fi Sense
- Better sound control with separate scrubbers for Notifications/Ringer and Apps/Media
- Better multi-tasking with suspend mode
- Camera burst mode, customizable viewfinder
- Swype-like keyboard
- Battery Sense app
- Storage Sense app
- New Music and Video apps
- Podcasts app
- Better backups with app data sync
- App data syncing across devices
- Customizable lockscreen and glance screen notifications
- You can change the default SMS app and the default SMS notifications
- Support for QHD displays, dual-SIM and fingerprint scanners, on-screen buttons
- System Wide File Manager (Named “Files”)
- Battery % in Action Center
Update Release Dates
The initial Roll-out was supposed to commence on 24th of June 2014 according to Microsoft themselves but as every update it hit a snag and hasn’t reached users yet. The India Windows Phone 8 users are a bit lucky in this matter as the Official Microsoft India Twitter page has confirmed the Roll-out to happen in the first two weeks of July 2014. Seeing the fact that India will get it anytime now one can expect the global Roll-out to commence in coordination.
Tweet from Microsoft India.
Limitations
The Windows Phone 8.1 does offer wide range of features but in order to compete with the likes of Android and iOS there still some factors to be taken care of, these are listed below.
- Options for more quick toggles
- Battery percentage on the status bar
- Richer app catalog
- Not All Live tiles take Custom Images as Backgrounds
- Basic operations via File Manager
- Cortana needs more time and work to compete with Google Now and Apple’s Siri
Stay tuned for all the Latest News and Updates on Windows Phone Devices, also feel free to point out anything we might have missed or that you think should be mentioned, in the comments section below.
