Windows Phone, the land of dynamic live tiles of various sizes, will soon be a little more like iOS and Android: An update to the platform will introduce the ability to drag several live tiles into a single folder on the home screen.
For other platforms, the introduction of home screen folders was a housekeeping move (arriving with iOS 4 in 2010 and Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” in 2011), essentially crossing a clearly needed feature off a list. For Windows Phone, however, it’s a departure. The mobile OS has eschewed folders since the beginning, mainly because its design language doesn’t play nicely with them. For most, multiple live tile sizes provides enough flexibility with the home screen layout.
That’s apparently no longer the case, according to details of the update that were posted to Microsoft’s Windows Phone developer portal, which were confirmed by several different sites. “Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1” is said to include a number of new features, although the introduction of folders is probably the most fundamental change to the OS.
Folders arriving on Windows Phone could has both positive and negative implications. On the one hand, it’s a concession that the design philosophy was perhaps flawed from the beginning. But it’s also an affirmation of the platform’s usability and app catalog; if users are demanding the feature, it’s probably because they have so many apps installed that they are in danger of losing track of them on the home screen.
Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 has a few other upgrades, including support for voice over LTE (VoLTE), 1,280 x 800 displays and huge (7-inch) screens. It’ll also bring support for interactive cases, letting Windows Phone manufacturers build accessories like Samsung’s Galaxy S View cases and the HTC Dot View case, which have a small windows or perforations that the screen can sense and adapt to.
The update could come as early as next week, according to The Verge. Representatives of Microsoft declined to comment.
Source: Mashable