Windows Mobile is well known for its lack of certain key popular apps or the popular apps not being updated quickly enough. However, these key apps are being made available to the ecosystem like the official Facebook app and a proper Instagram app.
Snapchat is another popular social network which was estimated to have a higher daily active user count than Twitter and it was not available to Windows Mobile users. However, this will change as indicated by this conversation between a guy and a Lumia Twitter account which is in Spanish.
@GalnRodolfo ¡Pronto llegara a tu Windows Phone! Ya estamos trabajando con nuestros amigos de SnapChat para traerla lo antes posible. ^_^
— Lumia Soporte (@LumiaSoporte) June 23, 2016
From the translation, the customer asked why Snapchat was not available in the Windows Store. The Lumia Twitter account replied to him where they assured that the are working with their “friends at Snapchat” to bring it as soon as possible.
That reply is quite popular where some showed optimism to this development while others thought it was a lie. The person who gave out the information of this alleged partnership with Microsoft and Snapchat did not give extra information like the time frame for releasing the app or if it will be compatible with earlier versions so it is wise to keep your expectations as low as possible.
Microsoft has to make such moves in order to make Windows Mobile as competitive as possible. We have literally reached peak app usage and since most people use very few popular apps and download almost zero apps monthly, it is imperative to supply these popular ones to keep these users happy. We only have to wait and see if Microsoft will honour this claims to their loyal Windows Mobile users
The lack of Snapchat is a symptom. The disease is the platform is not attractive to developers. That’s a problem that is not easy to solve, especially given how much is invested in the concept of universal windows apps. Snapchat is an example of why that idea doesn’t make sense to developers. Snapchat exists for one form factor only, mobile. You can’t really use it on a desktop or in a browser. Rolling it out to all Windows 10 devices, namely PCs, Laptops, tablets and Xbox (which is how they plan to compensate for single digit % market share Window Phone holds) wont give SnapChat any value. Snapchat on Windows 10 for Mobile would be like putting an Elastoplast on a broken arm. It’s a visible sign that something is being done, but it doesn’t really solve the underlying problem.
The underlying problem is dire, I totally agree with you but the reprieve Windows Mobile users get when they are given such popular apps can be some sort of remedy for them.
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