LinkedIn app for Windows phones to be retired in August, but a Windows 10 app is on the way

LinkedIn
LinkedIn (Image credit: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central)

There's been a bit of confusion recently concerning what exactly is happening with the LinkedIn app for Windows phone, but it looks like its upcoming retirement is now official. In a new email being sent to users of the app, Microsoft explains it will retire the current Windows phone app at the end of August.

Though LinkedIn will remain on your phone if you choose, it will stop working as of August 31, Microsoft explains. In its place, you'll have to instead access LinkedIn through its mobile website in Edge or Internet Explorer.

While that's no doubt bad news for Windows phone fans, Microsoft does try to smooth things over. The company says at the end of the email that it will launch "a new LinkedIn Windows desktop app in a few weeks on the Microsoft Windows App store." So, in other words, a Windows 10 app is on the way, but only for desktop, it seems. Hopefully that means we'll eventually see the app come to Windows 10 Mobile as well, but it'd probably be wise not to get your hopes up.

This all follows a strange journey for the LinkedIn app in recent months. Earlier in 2017, Microsoft sent an email to users saying the app would be retired, only to retract that statement shorly thereafter. In June, the LinkedIn app was pulled from the Windows Store. A few days later, it was updated to what was essentially a web wrapper, but only those who still had the app installed could get the update since it was no longer available in the Store.

In any case, the end of August spells the end for the mobile app, but at least there's a desktop version on the horizon.

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Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl