Windows Phone 8.1 SDK Gets The Hands On Treatment

If you are a big fan of Windows Phone, you may be interested in the latest version of the smartphone OS that is due out in the next few months. The next version of the OS, Windows Phone 8.1 has reportedly been shared with developers, and as is typical, one of those devs has leaked some details on the operating system update. The leaked details have been put in a video that you can see below.

All the details of the Windows Phone 8.1 operating system for smartphones is expected to be announced in April at the BUILD Developer Conference. Some of the updates outlined in the video include support for Universal Apps. That Universal Apps support includes tools that allow devs to build apps for the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store at the same time.

The OS also supports 3rd-party text messaging clients. Another cool feature in the OS update is a Battery Power Sense tool that is thought to be intended to help the smartphone user monitor the battery life of the phone and optimize the battery for runtime.

Another new feature seen in the video is a new navigation bar. That nav bar can be matched to the background color or accent colors of the user's device. Some features that are expected in the final version of Windows Phone 8.1 are missing in the dev build on the video. Those features include things like a voice assistance app similar to Siri and a new notification center. Windows Phone 8.1 has been promised to work with any device currently running Windows Phone 8.

SOURCE: Winbeta