Windows Phone is not long for this world. But don't worry, Microsoft hasn't killed Windows Phone like it all-but killed the Nokia phone brand last year.
Instead, Windows phones, tablets, laptops and desktops are all going to use the same system, Windows 10. Or to be more precise, they'll use the same family of software. Microsoft isn't silly enough to try to cram what we'll use on a 27-inch PC monitor onto a 5-inch phone screen.
Windows 10 will take over from Windows Phone 8.1, bypassing poor old Windows 9.0 altogether. The first build will be released to select devs as early as February, proving that it's already a working system, not just a demo.
The key question now: what's new? And does it have much chance up against Android 5.0 Lollipop and iOS 8.1?
Consistent approach across phone, tablet and desktop
The main aim of Windows 10 for phones seems to be to catch up with something Google and Apple have been working on for a while now: to have a consistent experience between your phone and your laptop or tablet. Being able to check emails on two devices at the same time is a given, but Windows 10 tries a lot harder to merge platforms.
Action Center, the notifications drop-down and Windows' "brain" introduced in Windows 8.1, will now sync in with a similar hub in the desktop version of Windows 10. It's where you find all your new emails, invites, messages and so on.
The stock messenger in desktop Windows will also offer the same communications standard, Skype, as the Windows Phone messaging app, letting the two platforms act as nodes in the same infrastructure. So your nan will be able to chat with you on your mobile while she's using a PC, without any third-party apps. Neat, right?
It's similar to what Apple does with iMessage. Although, granted, most people we know use iMessage exclusively on iPhones, and only notice it's there when it goes wrong.
A new look for your home screens
Despite having a grand new name and setting an important precedent in being totally multi-platform, Windows 10 for phones looks quite a lot like Windows Phone 8.1. Baby and associated toys have not been thrown out with the figurative bathwater.
The system has a recognisable interface that's split into a home screen and an apps menu that houses all the bits you don't want to see every day. However, the look of the all-important home screen has been tweaked, fixing something we complained about when Windows Phone 8.1 was first announced.
Windows Phone 8.1 introduced home screen backgrounds, letting you jazz up your Live Tiles with a selected background rather than the usual block colour. Fair enough, many people love a bit of customisation. However, it also had a tendency to make the tiles' contents completely illegible if you weren't careful about the background used.
Windows 10 for phones tweaks this idea by putting the background across the whole home screen, with the Live Tiles sitting on top as a translucent layer. Which is, of course, what they should have done in the first place.
It could be that the original template was used because it let more of the screen stay black, which would improve battery life in top Nokia OLED phones like the Nokia Lumia 930. But perhaps we're overestimating Microsoft here.
New Outlook: richer email than ever
As an effort to become a bit more PC-like, Windows 10 for phone gets a brand new Outlook interface. That's the default Windows client for mail, for anyone who has shied away from Windows laptops and phones for the last, say, 25 years.
In Windows Phone 8.1, Outlook seems deliberately simple, more concerned with fitting in visually with the rest of the system than offering power user features. However, that's all going to change with Windows 10.
You'll be able to fully format your text just as you would with a desktop computer, and even add tables. What better way is there for the passive-aggressive among us to show our friends exactly how much we overpaid at dinner?
All Windows phones to get an advanced camera app
One of the changes we're most looking forward to seeing is the new camera app. Windows 10 phones will more-or-less take on the Nokia Camera app currently used by most Nokia Lumia devices, ditching the very basic default camera of Windows Phone 8.1
Not only is Nokia Camera pretty feature-complete, offering great levels of manual control over photographic settings, it also means you won't have to juggle between camera apps anymore (Nokia Lumias currently offer two camera app interfaces). It's a win all round.
Finally, inbuilt HDR
Something we've been whinging about since Windows Phone 7 launched all the way back in 2010 is the lack of an inbuilt HDR mode. Granted, back then HDR wasn't seen as a priority.
But since then this mode became a staple of any mobile phone photographer looking to jazz up a sunset, or shoot into the sun without it ending up looking like a photo of the rapture. Windows Phone 8.1 does not offer a proper HDR mode in its camera app, but Windows 10 – at last – will.
For those not yet obsessed with HDR photography, it stands for high dynamic range, and involves merging together multiple shots using different exposure settings. The result is that you get more visible detail in the darkest and lightest areas of a picture. As limited dynamic range is one of the issues with tiny-sensor phone cameras, it can improve the quality of your shots no end.
Nokia Maps takes over for mapping
Just as Nokia Camera of Windows Phone 8.1 is going to be rebranded as the camera core of Windows 10 for phones, Nokia's HERE Maps is becoming the mapping engine of the new system instead of Bing Maps.
Back in the early days of Windows Phone, HERE Maps was called Nokia Maps, but it was renamed back in late 2012, as part of the move to bring the system to iOS and Android as well as Windows Phone.
For most current Windows users this won't be a substantial change, because all Nokia Lumia series devices have some version or other of Nokia's maps suite. But yes, once upon a time there were companies other than Nokia that made Windows phones.
The big benefit of HERE maps for those thinking about switching to Windows is that you can download big areas of map data, meaning you don't need a mobile internet connection to find out where on earth you are. Of course, it's already available for Android anyway and is coming to iOS this year.
What's likely to be the longer-term benefit is that third-party apps will use Nokia's maps rather than Bing's, for an all-round better experience.
Skype built into the messaging interface
Microsoft has owned Skype since 2011, and while it works on Windows Phone 8.1 at present, and even has Cortana integration, it's nothing like the sort of deep-rooted relationship we'll see in Windows 10 for phones.
In the next update, Skype is going to be built into the messaging app, meaning it can be used in place of SMS messages between Windows 10 phones. This gives it similar functionality to iPhones' iMessage, where messages are relayed using a tiny package of mobile (or Wi-Fi) data rather than an SMS-style signal, which uses a phone's 2G signal.
As we noted earlier, this means you'll be able to chat to desktop users directly from your phone's SMS app. Unfortunately, Microsoft says it has no plans to integrate other services such as WhatsApp. That's predictable, though – it wants to attract people to its own services, not Facebook's.
Spartan browser takes over from IE
Internet Explorer was once the go-to web browser. But these days it has an image problem. Most people we know use Chrome or Firefox these days, and while Internet Explorer is not bad in its current state, either on a laptop or a Windows Phone device, Microsoft is changing things up for Windows 10.
Windows 10 phones will use the Spartan browser, a brand new web browsing app that claims to be built on a whole new engine.
From what we know of it so far, Spartan seems to be geared towards today's connected world, letting you annotate and share web pages much more easily. It's not exactly hard to share pages in IE, but its design is a little more traditional: more about browsing as a solo activity than something that's part of your social habits.
Spartan will also feature Cortana integration, letting you talk to the Windows digital assistant without it seeming as though it's an overlay, another app running on top.
Keyboard gets a joystick
One last important change in Windows 10 for phones is perhaps the least glamorous, but the one you're likely to notice and use most often. Microsoft has jammed in a little joystick to the bottom-left of the virtual keyboard to make it easier to correct your mistakes.
In Windows Phone 8.1 you have to press down on the touchscreen, on the text itself, to try and pinpoint the bit you want to change. It's a bit fiddly. Hopefully this little joystick will improve what is already one of the best keyboards among mobile phones.
When is Windows 10 for phones coming?
There's plenty of good change ahead – and not long to wait, with the first builds of Windows 10 for phones due to start shipping in February.
But don't get too excited. These builds are designed for developers, to help them get their apps primed for the consumer arrival of the system. At present Microsoft says that'll happen "later in the year." Nice and clear, then.
Microsoft doesn't tend to feel the need to rush out software shortly after its announced, so don't expect to see Windows 10 phones within the next few months. Plan for mid-to-late 2015 and you won't be disappointed.
There is good news, though. Microsoft says that all phones currently running Windows Phone 8.1 will get the update to Windows 10. After the way in which Windows Phone 7 users were all but cut off back in 2012 with the announcement of Windows Phone 8, it's a relief to know that Microsoft is getting it right this time.
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