One of the ways Microsoft made its mobile platform different from its rivals was to go in a completely opposite direction with the user interface. It employs live Tiles instead of conventional app icons, and up till now hasn’t allowed users to natively create app folders. On the other hand users on iOS and Android have been able to create folders for applications by simply dragging and dropping one app on another. Though it looks like Microsoft might finally warm up to the idea and release an update which brings Windows Phone 8.1 folder support. A support article was spotted today on Microsoft’s Windows Phone website which revealed that Microsoft will bring native folder support to the Start Screen on Windows Phone devices. That article has now been removed, looks like someone pulled the trigger on it by mistake.
Microsoft has always taken a fairly simple approach to app management on Windows Phone, avoiding folder interfaces that iOS and Android have adopted with the company’s “Metro-style” interface. It appears that’s about to change. A now removed support articleover at Microsoft’s Windows Phone site has revealed the company is planning to natively support folders for apps on the Start Screen. The method will work similar to iOS, where you drag one Tile on top of another and it creates a folder that can then be renamed. Apps can then be accessed from within the folder. Microsoft notes that to create folders on the Start Screen “you need to have Windows Phone 8.1 Update installed on your phone,” which suggests this functionality is coming in an update to Windows Phone 8.1, rather than the OS update itself. The Vergeunderstands that Microsoft is currently in the final stages of testing its first update to Windows Phone 8.1, which is expected to debut in July or August. The folder functionality could work in a similar, but more native, way to the method that Nokia used to bring some folder-like functionality to Windows Phone 8 earlier this year. We’ve reached out to Microsoft for comment on its “Windows Phone 8.1 Update” plans, and we’ll update you accordingly.
