Back on October 30th, we reported that the popular ticketing site Fandango had their app removed from the Windows Phone Store. The reason? Terrible reviews and a non-functioning app will evidently get you in hot trouble with your customers, so either Fandango yanked it or Microsoft did. Nevertheless, users of the service were out of luck, right when Windows Phone was hitting its stride.
Luckily for us, the app is back tonight on the Store. Version 1.6 has returned with Windows Phone 8 support (and gone is anything for Windows Phone 7.x, which was probably the culprit). We haven’t seen much in the way of updates for Fandango, in fact, the last one was back in April…2012.
So what’s new in 1.6? Not too much. All we get are ‘Usability enhancements and general bug fixes’ and the fact that, you know, you can actually download the darn thing again. We’ll take that as a starter and hope that Fandango gets back to us with some Windows Phone 8 features. For instance, there is no lockscreen support, a doublewide tile or even rapid resume. Not deal breakers but we had the app crash a few times already. But hey, we’re just psyched to get the app works again.
So why use Fandango at all? Well, you have to understand Fandango isn’t just a movie theaters and times app. The Fandango service allows you to buy tickets directly for a movie and then use a QR code for scanning when you go to the theater. In the age where we order pizza via our phones (hello, Domino’s!), grabbing tickets for the next Scorsese film through our phone should be basic stuff in 2014. So that’s why we use it and why we’re glad it’s back. Now if they can just make this a banner app, we’d be happy (maybe the Nokia DVLUP folks can get involved).
Regardless, you can now pick up Fandango version 1.6 for Windows Phone 8 here in the Store or scan the QR below.
Thanks, Scott N., for the tip!
Daniel Rubino is the Executive Editor of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft here since 2007, back when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and arguing with people on the internet.
