It took a few years, but the Microsoft Store has come a long way. It can even be said that the fledgling apps repository is finally able to walk with the big boys in terms of feature, if nothing else.
A long way to go, still, but at least the foundation is set.
And this foundation just got a bit more solid with the new features that Microsoft just announced.
These go well with the tools and solutions for developers that were also detailed at the 2022 edition of the BUILD developer conference, designed to help them promote their applications and get them in front of more eyeballs.
Before we get to the nuts and bolts, the company confirmed that during the first quarter of calendar year 2022, it witnessed a 50% increase in the arrival of new desktop apps and games on the storefront compared to the same period last year.
To make management of these apps and games easier, the software titan is testing a capability to restore apps across Windows devices to make transition between PCs seamless. This feature will soon be available for testing for Insiders.
Developers can now also take advantage of app badges to make their creations more prominent on websites, while at the same time extending and simplifying the install experience.
Additionally, the waitlist for publishing Win32 apps to the Microsoft Store no longer exists. The program is now open to all such developers, no matter if they use platforms like .NET, C++, Electron, Flutter, Qt, Rust, or more to code their wares.
Likewise, developers can take advantage of new features like automating submissions directly through their CI/CD GitHub Actions or Rest API pipelines, testing for app visibility, viewing app telemetry, as well as responding to user reviews directly.
Microsoft emphasizes that it will continue to make its storefront a better place, both for consumers and developers, in the future.
More power to them!
