Windows phone apps on Windows 10

Question

I'm creating apps for windows phone pretty much since the beginning and I was wondering.. Will the Windows Phone apps run on Windows 10 (for Phone) ? I could not find an answer anywhere and I wonder if the Windows Phone store will just disappear with the new version of Windows.

Answer 1

As Erno said: We don't know yet. But there have been a few clues indeed. I got a newsletter a week ago where Microsoft issued a new challenge on DVLUP that suggests making apps ready for Windows Phone 10 means at least porting them to Windows Phone 8.1:

https://www.dvlup.com/Challenge/c37655f6-1d31-4a67-aa20-dea314a7a03b

Also you can find this statement:

We're more committed than ever to making sure that you can leverage your work to reach more customers, regardless of where they are, what device type they're on, or what operating system they're running. The best way to start preparing for Windows 10 is to start building universal Windows apps today for Windows 8.1.

http://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2015/01/22/windows-10-is-empowering-developers-to-dream-again-3/

So with all this in mind Windows 10 seems to drop Silverlight for Windows Runtime (at least they are heavily promoting migrating apps there).

Answer 2

After upgrading my 830 to Windows 10 preview, it seems like even Windows phone 7 apps still work under Windows 10 for phone. I still wonder how are they going to handle the different stores though. Anyway, I got my answer. Wait and see !

Answer 3

Am sure that a Windows Phone 8.1 silver light app would continue to run on Windows 10 Mobile you don't even need to upgrade to Windows 10 OS running Visual Studio 2015 to manage your app on Windows 10 Mobile you can continue to develop with the existing development environment(Windows 8.1 and VS 2013). For the query related to the store please follow the link Get ready for the Unified Dev Center dashboard preview and upcoming Store changes