App Wish Website Hopes to Encourage Developers to Deliver Apps

Fans of Windows/Windows 10 Mobile will try a lot of things to get their favorite apps on the platform. The latest is a wish list website that is asking for users input on what they want to see but unfortunately wish lists and petitions will not make it happen.

Richard Hay, Senior Content Producer

February 8, 2016

3 Min Read
App Wish Website Hopes to Encourage Developers to Deliver Apps

Today a website has popped up promising to help Windows 10 users get their most desired apps on the platform by voting for the apps they want to see on the desktop and mobile versions of the seven month old operating system.

WishAppList apparently went live last night and according to the sites associated Twitter account they had accumulated 300 apps on their site and over 4,000 votes. According to the website they will contact app publishers to show them the vote counts on their apps and push them to developer their app for the Windows Store.

I caught wind of the site when Windows Central posted about it and since then the site has struggled to keep up with the demand on it. My unofficial count of the apps listed on the site shows only 262  apps listed but the vote count has jumped up to nearly 6,800 across the first three listing pages (27 apps) for the most popular apps. There are currently 30 pages of app listings with nine on each page.

The entire list is a mix of standard apps and desktop programs many of which are already available on Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile.

Here are the apps listed in the top 10 right now:

  • Snapchat - 1027 votes

  • YouTube - 864 votes

  • Instagram - 583 votes

  • Clash of Clans - 566 votes

  • Facebook - 387 votes

  • Messenger by Facebook - 343 votes

  • Twitter - 280 votes

  • Steam - 243 votes

  • Waze - 235

  • Google Chrome - 230 votes

As you can see it is a couple of the most highly requested apps near the top of the list but also apps that are already available on Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile.

When I mentioned that some of these apps are already on the Windows platform someone did comment that they could be listed so they could get app parity with their iOS and Android counterparts.

I guess that is possible but the reality is that something like this will not likely have any serious impact on a developers decision to deliver an app to the Windows platform or give feature parity to an existing app.

An example of this is the current Snapchat petition that is over on Change.org. It currently has over 60,000 signatures. In August of last year it had over 43,000 signatures but six months and 17,000 signatures later we are no closer to seeing Snapchat on Windows Phone/Windows 10 Mobile because of this petition.

The Windows Phone/Windows 10 Mobile platform is dormant right now and no amount of signatures on a petition or votes on an app wish list website is going to change that.

The best plan for the long term survival of the platform is for Microsoft to keep it low key while more and more companies bring their apps to the Universal Windows Platform and those same companies realize the simplicity with which they can then deliver their apps to other Windows 10 devices including Windows 10 Mobile.

However, that is not going to be an overnight occurrence so it will require patience on our part as the process takes hold. Microsoft has been talking about the Windows 10 ecosystem of platforms for a long time now and they are not going to walk away from mobile as part of that plan.

But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.

About the Author

Richard Hay

Senior Content Producer, IT Pro Today (Informa Tech)

I served for 29 plus years in the U.S. Navy and retired as a Master Chief Petty Officer in November 2011. My work background in the Navy was telecommunications related so my hobby of computers fit well with what I did for the Navy. I consider myself a tech geek and enjoy most things in that arena.

My first website – AnotherWin95.com – came online in 1995. Back then I used GeoCities Web Hosting for it and WindowsObserver.com is the result of the work I have done on that site since 1995.

In January 2010 my community contributions were recognized by Microsoft when I received my first Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award for the Windows Operating System. Since then I have been renewed as a Microsoft MVP each subsequent year since that initial award. I am also a member of the inaugural group of Windows Insider MVPs which began in 2016.

I previously hosted the Observed Tech PODCAST for 10 years and 317 episodes and now host a new podcast called Faith, Tech, and Space. 

I began contributing to Penton Technology websites in January 2015 and in April 2017 I was hired as the Senior Content Producer for Penton Technology which is now Informa Tech. In that role, I contribute to ITPro Today and cover operating systems, enterprise technology, and productivity.

https://twitter.com/winobs

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