Microsoft releases LinkedIn Windows 10 app (web wrapper)
Microsoft and LinkedIn announced today the release of the new LinkedIn application for Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system.
The app, which will be rolled out gradually until the end of the month to the Windows 10 population is LinkedIn's first application for Windows 10.
The company announced earlier that it made the decision to retire the Windows Phone application.
The blog posts on the Windows Experience and LinkedIn blog highlight that Windows 10 users will "enjoy a richer, more engaging and connected LinkedIn experience".
It is rather disappointing however that the new LinkedIn application for Windows 10 is pretty much just a wrapper for the LinkedIn website with some features baked on top of that.
The LinkedIn Windows 10 app
What that means is that Windows 10 users get pretty much the same experience that they get when they open LinkedIn in a web browser. The features that Microsoft added to the app are Action Center and Live Tile support, as well as support for real-time notifications.
The application on top of that is only available for desktop PCs; mobile is not supported.
My take on this
Some Windows 10 users will certainly like the functionality that Microsoft added to the LinkedIn wrapper. I'd like to see some stats about the use of Live Tiles and the Action Center on desktop PCs.
LinkedIn does support notifications in browsers already as well however, but I don't know if those are in real-time or delayed.
Good news is that users of the app may customize which notifications are displayed and which are not in the Action Center.
I cannot imagine that a lot of users make use of these features on the desktop, except maybe for a quick glance on the weather tile every now and then.
My main issue with the application is that it lacks dedication. Windows Store is arguably still in its infancy when compared to the big contenders. The situation improves with every release, but if Microsoft cannot deliver powerful applications that show the strength of the Universal Windows Platform, how can the company expect that third-party developers invest resources in doing so?
What is the message that Microsoft sends when Android and iOS get a custom LinkedIn application, and the company's own Windows 10 operating system a wrapper with some added features on top of it?
The only explanation that I have for the move is that Microsoft did not have the time yet to create a dedicated application for LinkedIn for Windows 10.
Now You: What's your take on the release?
I’ve never liked the idea of companies using apps to do what should be done via an open World Wide Web anyway. I’m not just talking about Linked-in, but companies as a whole.
It’s like hey, download a complete web browser for every single website you visit. Um, no. Seriously, is that what companies visions are for the future of the WWW, needing an OS specific app for each website? How about working towards bringing the mobile web up-to-speed so that all users can use it regardless of OS or device and without constantly asking them to download some app that often needs ridiculous permissions like access to your GPS and your contacts list, etc. and then on top of that needs to keep updating itself. Using individual apps for this sort of thing is a dumb solution, but of course the sceptic in me thinks companies already know this, but choose to ignore it because they want greater access to the information on peoples devices.