Microsoft will no longer allow new Windows 8 apps to Store from the end of October

Microsoft has announced that as of October 31, it will no longer accept new apps for Windows 8 or 8.1 and Windows Phone 8 in its Store. In a next step, the Redmond company will also stop distributing updates.

“As part of our Windows device life cycle, the Microsoft Store will soon stop accepting new apps with xap and appx packages for Windows Phone 8.x and earlier or Windows 8/8.1,” Microsoft wrote in an announcement. In concrete terms, this change means that from October 31 it will no longer be possible to place new apps for those platforms in the Store. Existing apps will not notice this, according to Microsoft.

Subsequently, as of July 1, 2019, it will no longer be possible to release app updates to devices running Windows Phone 8.x and older. Microsoft explains that those updates can still be published, but that it will only distribute them to devices with Windows 10. Eventually, updates to desktop apps will also be discontinued.

That will happen on July 1, 2023. From that moment on, Microsoft will no longer distribute updates to devices with Windows 8 or 8.1, but only to Windows 10 devices. Microsoft recommends developers to port their app to an uwp variant. Mainstream support for Windows 8.1 ended at the beginning of this year. Security updates will be released until 2023.