Windows 10 universal app

As you probably know, Windows 10 will be realised in the 3rd or 4th quarter in 2015. If the Gospel Library could be made as a universal app (see: http://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2 ... indows-10/) that can be installed over all windows devices it would mean that I can install the same app on my Windows Phone, PC's (including desktop, laptops and slates) and also Xbox One - great when an investigator is visiting our home (all part of the hastening) and can view LDS content on our larger TV screen.

Is there any work being done on a universal app for Windows 10? For those of us who have resisted Apple iOS and Google Android devices that are so ubiquitous and patiently chosen just one ecosystem (in my case Microsoft Windows) it would be so simple. Keep up the excellent work!

Yes. Gospel Library is being developed as a universal application for Windows 10 (In other words, the application will work on desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones). The phone UI is being worked on and a beta release of the new phone version of Gospel Library will be available when it is ready to be tested.

Thanks for that and look forward to seeing those developments as they are implemented!

Noticed that Windows Insider previews will also be on Windows Phone: http://winsupersite.com/windows-phone/m ... hone-users

Windows Insider Program will as a consumer preview for Windows 10 on maybe on 21 January according to Microsoft who hinted at that http://www.itpro.co.uk/operating-system ... cs-pricing

Just install Windows 10 technical Preview Build 9926, Gospel Library does not run, justs start then return to previous screen.

bobmylouga,

I have a suspicion that the Gospel Library crashes on Windows 10 are not a result of Windows 10 itself, but of a recent issue we've been experiencing. As I've noted elsewhere, an update to the library's content catalog by the content team caused unexpected behavior and is causing this issue for users who already had the application installed. We’re actively working on fixes for this issue, but, for now, the best course of action at present is to restart your computer, then uninstall and reinstall the application. The Windows Store is sometimes slow to recognize that you have uninstalled an application, so you may wish to restart your computer before attempting to reinstall after uninstalling, as well.

That said, as Windows 10 is still in a state of flux, we aren't official supporting it yet. As it gets close to release, I expect that to change. Let me know if uninstalling and reinstalling the application remedies your issue.

Letters

I think you are right. The beta works for me in Windows 10's latest build also - so well done! There is a small but growing buzz about building Windows 10 apps for Xbox One and the "how to" will be introduced at the build conference in April 2015 (see: http://www.polygon.com/2015/1/21/786689 ... s-xbox-one).

So at least now there is a target to use to move forward from. It would be great to see WinGL pass by iOS and Android apps and go WAY beyond parity! From now on the edict should be "slow and steady" WINS the race. The slow part is over now it is time to get more on board to embrace what seems IMHO now to be a superior ecosystem and platform for the Gospel Library and there is even the possibility for holographic applications too (see: http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us) which is extraordinary really!

pahallow,

As I've mentioned before, I keep quite up on the technology news. I'm aware of Microsoft's announcements and the churn currently in the ecosystem. We've got our targets--we've had them. What we need is time, not targets. The apps are moving already, be patient.

I get it Numbers!

The reason I am so (maybe unreasonably) impatient, is because the Windows LDS apps (including and not only, such things as LDS tools and even Leadership tools online) have been neglected for so long and now it see the potential of not only reaching parity with Apple and Google apps but also exceeding the feature set and THAT is exciting.

One thing though and IMO may be useful for LDS app users, is discovery of beta versions. I mean for me, I have only been here since the middle of December (when I accidentally discovered the new version of the Gospel Library) but in that short time I learned that the very ordinary WinGL had gained traction with a superior 2.0 version and have also seen now, the evolution of wonderful and inspiring app.

I worked in CES for years and back in the day, I used paid version of the LDS Gospel InfoBase that had more than 2,000 books and seeing what is here is extraordinary ... really!

I just wonder how many other LDS folk are out there not knowing that they could feedback (whilst using beta versions) about what they would like to see in terms of the feature set?

No that Windows 10 is to be released earlier in June instead of August or later can we start to use the WinGL universal app? It would be grate to feedback about our experience across devices. I know it may be a big ask but it would be great to use it even if it is a bit buggy...

The currently available application for Windows 8.1 is already the universal application. Test that. As for the phone component of the application, it's not ready and it will not be available until we have at least met a minimum bar we have set for ourselves.

It will be ready when it is ready to be ready, and not a moment sooner. Getting feedback for the phone component of the universal app now would literally be worthless.

Thanks...I get from the tone of your post, that you are a bit frustrated with my posts now and I apologise for my persistence. You should have seen me as a FT missionary! As I previously posted, I am more concerned that the Windows team are not provided more resources by the Church and that parity on all of the main ecosystems or platforms (Windows, iOS and Android) is not equal.

From my perspective that is simply not fair (and maybe not even reasonable) to you, your team or the end users of these tools. It would seem that Apple and to a lesser extent Google have been most effective of swinging members hearts and minds to their ecosystems.

And I do get that the leaders have to be careful of their use of "sacred funds" but centralising feedback into one place on the desktop maybe a third link in the GL would be good and inviting or prompting people to say more might also be good. Once again, Microsoft's approach in Windows 10 seems to really be the "sweet spot" approach and outcomes.

The same can be said I am sure for LCR (set to replace MLS) now see https://tech.lds.org/blog/665-ministeri ... -resources and our membership does not seems blissfully unaware of what is happening ... or not. I mean we don't even know where to post if we are new to all this as I am. Also the decisions don't seem to reflect the "Hastening" that is sweeping the Church in so many areas. Hence the reason for hitting on you directly even though you say you don't have the power.

Once again (and as always) thank you for your patience and understanding and I look forward to seeing what's coming next!

@pahollow Thanks for your persistence and your enthusiasm. We are a small team of volunteers who are working on the Windows Universal apps and love to be involved with this great work. We recognize that we are not yet at parity with the other platforms and it may be a while before we reach it. We can always use more help if there are experienced C#/XAML/HTML/JS developers who are willing to dedicate some of their time to our effort.

Currently we are being stretched a bit thin trying to get the Windows Phone side of the Universal app ready for a public beta release. As a result, some of the features we would like to add to the "tablet/desktop" side of the app have been delayed.

As for Windows 10, we are actively working to make the app function properly on 8.1 and 10. Currently, Windows 10 preview still has some bugs in it which may cause the application to misbehave and we are doing our part to make sure that we are coding correctly so it will work properly as W10 begins to stabilize. This includes W10 on both PC and Phone.

The LDS Tools for Windows team is also making good progress with their application. The LDS Tools for WP8.1 is available as a Beta in the store. LDS Tools is also a universal app and while the phone side is a little ahead of the tablet side, they are both moving pretty closely in lockstep with one another and should be available in the very near future.

Again, a plea to any experienced C#/XAML/HTML/JS experts who are willing to dedicate time to the moving forward of these applications...please join our projects at tech.lds.org and sign up for Windows Gospel Library and Windows LDS Tools.

Thank you for your kind words of encouragement. Over the weekend I installed Windows 10 on my Nokia Lumia 920 (now listed on the insider program for Windows 10. Windows 10 on the mobile phone is not very stable but WinGL 1.17.0.4 works as expected except there are no Mormon messages. The new version 2.0.1.31 beta seemed to load well and I noted some (NT and Doctrine and Covenants and Bible Dictionary) but not all in the scriptures hub load. The full hymns experienced worked briefly (because preview was enabled) but now just shows text like version 1x. Video works well in landscape or portrait. Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson and other content works as expected.

Overall an excellent start but I will keep version 1 there also. Thank you so much for doing this great work despite the lack of people in the team

Windows 10 will be released to the public July 29th. Has it been determined when the Windows 10 Universal App will be released?

Windows 8.1's app is already universal app. The phone component is already released in conjunction with Windows 8.1's Gospel Library Beta and when the phone app is stabilized, the universal version of the app will replace the non-beta app as well.

Perhaps I had misunderstood. I thought there was going to be a Gospel Library app specifically for Windows 10. Was I mistaken?

The apps on Windows 10 are the apps on Windows 8.1. It is likely that, at some point after its release, we will focus on Windows 10's version of the app, but they--the Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 Gospel Library apps--are one and the same. Indeed, if you are running Windows 10 Insider Preview, you can download the current app from Windows Store Beta.

I have been doing the Insider Preview and running the Windows 8.1 app on it since January. Works GREAT. Thank you so much for everything you put into the app's development. Considering the subject matter of this thread, I just thought there was going to be another app for Windows 10.

The universal app for the phone looks great! It would be lovely to see the sheet music show up on the smaller Lumia screens as it does on the larger screens and also (as said before have all of the Hymns...well done for the work so far!

Windows 10 is released now and WinGL works well. Just wondering now if the tabs feature that is under construction can be completed? Also I have noticed that trying to login to the forums in the new Microsoft Edge browser is a bit unstable but if you switch to Internet Explorer mode it seems to work well enough.

I am guessing we must be close to completion of the beta now? It is still a bit buggy needing to be uninstalled and reinstalled a bit but overall pretty good.

Finally it would be good to see sheet music view on the phone version (5-6" size screen) when using it in landscape (screen rotation) obviously in portrait screen orientation it would not fit. Kudos so far very good! Next up Xbox One version...

The finished universal WinGL is good but noticed that sometimes the features vary on PC, mobile phone and slate. The sheet music view is not available on every desktop for example.

This is unavoidable. Despite being "universal", the fact is that the APIs and feature sets of Windows and Windows Phone are very different. We have tried to implement the sheet music feature on phones, but it was completely unusable, even on high end phones. We're looking forward to see if Windows 10 allows us any more flexibility here, but I wouldn't get too hopeful, to be frank. Optimization comes before feature parity. If the feature makes sense and can function well enough on phones, tablet features will come to phones. If they don't, they don't.

It's really that simple.

The beta feature, sheet music view, is available on all tablet, desktop, and laptop devices which are running the most recent version of the beta app from the Store.

Just wondering now if the tabs feature that is under construction can be completed?

This feature will be worked on again when we have a developer free to work on it. Most of the volunteer time has been spent on fixing bugs and preparing for the release of the updated Windows Phone version.

Next up Xbox One version...

No, next up is feature parity, stabilization, and a movement to a new content platform. We've got a LOT of work ahead of us before we even look at the XBOX One.

Just wondering how this project is coming.

It is moving along. We are still waiting on the new content source to even release a public preview of the new app. It may be some time before the new content is available, but we continue work on the new app so that it will take less time to be ready after the new content is available.

Thank you for the update, and thank you so much to you and the whole team for all of your hard work.

I haven't read this whole thread but wanted to comment. I hope that a windows app that is fully functioning is coming soon! I have used android versions and ipad versions of the gospel library app. They are awesome. Last year I switched to a microsoft surface pro thinking I would be able to study my scriptures on there since there is a windows gospel library app. I was so disappointed when I saw it. It is no where near the same as the android and ipad versions. I was so sad that I switched devices because one of the main things I use my tablet for is to study my scriptures. I wish there had been a disclaimer on the gospel library windows app that says it is not as good as ipad and android versions. I probably wouldn't have switched to the surface pro had I known that. I was sad to hear that the developers are volunteers who are trying their hardest. I wish the church was able to put all the same efforts into the windows version that the android and ipad versions have. I know so many people that are switching to windows tablets so I wish the windows version was similar to the android and ipad versions. I now study my scriptures on my android phone. It is hard because the screen is so small but it is fully functional and works much better. I don't even open the gospel library app on my surface or take it to church. Compared to the android and ipad versions it's pretty useless to me right now as it is. Thank you to everyone working on the app. I just wish you had more resources.

Both the Android and IOS apps have been around for quite some time, while the Windows version only for a couple of years. It's come a long way in that short time. First development of this app was for Windows 8.1. Then Windows 10 came along, and they now have 2 operating systems to work on, probably not with double the previous staff, either.

Yes, the staff is volunteer and understaffed, but they are still doing a tremendous job. In time, it will catch up with the other versions.

Thank you for your updates and for all of your donated time and effort. The app is amazing and I am looking forward to the future based on the updates you described. A few questions, what is the 'content delivery' function you describe? Is that how the content is delivered to the app like new conference talks every 6 months, etc? Are you thinking this is a multi-month activity to get to the next major release or a 2017 type timeframe?

Is the beta app available in the Microsoft store the most up to date preview?

Any way non-coders like myself can contribute to the activity?

Once again thank you very much for your service developing and upgrading this app!

A few questions, what is the 'content delivery' function you describe? Is that how the content is delivered to the app like new conference talks every 6 months, etc?

The content delivery we're talking about is basically twofold. There's a team that works on creating content that the Gospel Library applications on iOS, Android, and Windows, as well as lds.org can see. This is the stuff you get to download for offline use. Their preparation of the content is what makes it possible to create, store, and synchronize any annotations you have for a piece of content to your LDS Account. As new content gets created and older content gets updated, the apps receive a notice that some piece of content needs to be updated or made newly available. For example, just in the last week, the content team made the Gospel Topics Essays available in the application. These now show up and you can access them, annotate them, etc.

What is going on--and what is causing our team as much grief as it is--is that the content team is drastically changing how it delivers content and, as a result, how it synchronizes your annotations. This does have many benefits, but is putting quite a burden on the developers. Ideally, users won't have much of an idea that anything has changed, and indeed, I believe the iOS and Android teams are basically aiming to have an app that looks and operates basically the same way when that new content is finally available. However, the code change requirement for the Windows version of the app is so substantial that it was drastically easier to just start our entire app from scratch. This, compounded with some much-needed user interface changes (like replacing the radial menu with something easier to use for most users), have necessitated a new app--what we've interchangeably been calling the "Windows 10" version of the app (as it will require Windows 10) and version 3.x. This app is in development, spreading our already small development team even thinner. In order for us to launch this new app, not only to do we have to have the app working with the new content (this is done), we have to also reach feature parity with the current version of the application. This is probably our biggest struggle, as the current app has quite the number of features. In addition, the new app will introduce several much-requested features at launch, including a "Download All" feature.

At some point in the not too distant future, we will most likely make "Gospel Library Preview" available for public consumption, even before we reach feature parity with the current version of the app, but for now, we've kept the admittedly very rough 3.x app only available to internal testers so that we can work out the particularly egregious bugs before we take it to the public.

Is the beta app available in the Microsoft store the most up to date preview?

It is the most current publically available version of the app, yes.

Any way non-coders like myself can contribute to the activity?

Yes. You can join the Gospel Library Windows project here at tech.lds.org and join our Saturday morning meetings. We can assess the skills you bring to the project and see how you might best contribute. Some people are testers that help to reproduce bugs, find bugs, others are helping with localization, etc.

Once again thank you very much for your service developing and upgrading this app!

Thanks for your thanks!