Fancy now available in the Windows Store

We’ve covered Fancy before. It’s a website that’s part shopping and part Instagram. It’s also part social network. Fancy is a great place to discover things. Things like watches, home appliances, threads, gadgets, travel accessories and so much more. You can browse Fancy on the web or through their various apps. Like the one for Windows Phone and the newly released Windows 8 version. Let’s check out Fancy from the Windows Store.

We’re actually pretty big fans of Fancy (www.fancy.com) for Windows Phone. It’s a great app to kill time and find some sweet gear for all that extra cash you have laying around. No we’re not billionaires (yet), but we do find some practical uses for Fancy – like gift shopping. It’s an invaluable little app for shopping for loved ones. How’s it hold up on Windows 8?

It’s decent. However, we wanted to be blown away by Fancy on Windows 8, but we’re a little under whelmed. We think there’s a lot of potential for the type of app Fancy is and what’s capable with Windows 8 apps. The big problem is that it looks like their using a web wrapper of some kind for the app. You could get the exact same experience using Internet Explorer and going to fancy.com versus using the app.

The Live tile isn’t “live”. The Share charm doesn’t work as it should, instead it of sharing a product you share a screenshot of the Fancy app. The Settings charm actually doesn’t contain your account info, instead you have another settings button by bringing up the lower app bar. It’s disappointing that the description for Fancy in the Windows Store says it’s optimized for Windows 8.1. Good luck using the app in any of the various snapped modes.

Fancy on Windows Phone isn’t at all like the one on Windows 8. The Windows Phone version of Fancy is a native app that looks good and performs well. You don’t get that with the Windows 8 version sadly. We’re hoping the Fancy team realizes that users on Windows 8 want and deserve an amazing app. Fancy is a great platform, so we’re hoping to see a little more effort Windows 8.

Want to take it for a spin? Grab Fancy in the Windows Store. Or for a very similar experience just visit Fancy in your browser.  

Sam Sabri