So here’s an extra nail in the coffin. On Monday, Microsoft published in a blog post that any phone operating the older Windows Phone 7.5 or 8 operating systems will no longer get push notifications. Plus, the “Find my phone” use on those operating systems will no longer run, either.
This isn’t definitely going to affect a whole lot of users: Windows Phone 7.5 was first issued in 2011, and Windows Phone 8 abandoned in 2012. Despite the terminology, they were totally different operating systems: Windows Phone 7.5 hardware couldn’t improve to Windows Phone 8. Neither operating system found a large audience at the time, and there possible aren’t many phones out there using it today which is part of why Microsoft currently sees itself in this suboptimal smartphone position in the first place.
If you’re one of the few using the more current Windows Phone 8.1, which left in 2014, Microsoft writes that everything will still work as usual ” at this time.” The phrasing here keeps the door open that things could improve in the not-so-distant future.
Meanwhile, Windows 10 Mobile, which started in 2015, is still fully maintained by Microsoft. At least, technically: While all of its modern features still work the same as they ever did, Microsoft announced in October that users can only assume security patches and minor changes, not major new features or new hardware.
So, yes, here’s another breakthrough in the march to the grave for Windows on smartphones.
Hope may still spring, though: Rumor is that Microsoft is working on a new, foldable tablet device that could also operate as a smartphone. If and when that device gets to market, though, it will almost certainly not be controlling anything we would today acknowledge as a Windows phone operating system.
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