Microsoft to stop Windows 8 app updates four years earlier than previously reported

Microsoft has quietly modified a notice published last year to make it clear that Windows 8 will no longer receive app updates from July 1 this year. Originally it stated that this would be the case from 2023.

The discontinuation of app updates on July 1, 2019 no longer applies only to Windows Phone 8.x or earlier versions, but also to Windows 8. Microsoft reports this in a blog post that was changed on April 2. That message is addressed to developers of Windows apps. Microsoft originally published that message on August 20, and then it still said that the company will be distributing app updates to Windows 8 until July 1, 2023.

The message concerns important data for xap and appx packages for Windows Phone 8.x and earlier versions and Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. Since October 2018, Microsoft has stopped accepting new relevant packages for apps in the Microsoft Store, but developers can still update existing apps. As far as Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 are concerned, this can also be updated after July 1, 2019, but Microsoft will then only make those updates available for Windows 10 devices.

Support for Windows 8.1 will remain until July 1, 2023. Microsoft will no longer distribute app updates after that date to PCs with Windows 8.1, but only to Windows 10 computers. According to StatCounter, Windows 8 has a 2.2 percent market share of all Windows versions, slightly more than Windows XP’s 1.7 percent. Windows 8.1 has a market share of 6.27 percent.

The extended support for Windows 8 ended in January 2016. Normally, the company uses a support period of ten years after release, but the company saw Windows 8.1 as a Service Pack for Windows 8. Users therefore got two more years after the release of 8.1. the time to upgrade before support would stop.