Microsoft is shutting down Windows App Studio

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
last updated

Microsoft has announced that it is preparing to shut down Windows App Studio. The online service, which lets users create Windows Universal Apps without coding, will gradually shut down over the course of the next several months, culminating with a full sunset on December 1.

Starting on July 15, Windows App Studio will only allow existing users to sign in and no new dynamic collections data sources will be able to be created. On September 15, Microsoft says the application editor will stop working and the dynamic collections API will stop providing data to existing apps. Finally, December 1 will bring the full shutdown.

Microsoft is encouraging current users to transition from Windows App Studio to Windows Template Studio, which is a Visual Studio 2017 extension, rather than a web app. Similar to Windows App Studio, the Template Studio extension uses code generation to help users more easily create Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps via a guided wizard-based experience.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
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. 

44 Comments
  • I actually used this for a friend and his business... The one and only app he has
  • At least they offer somewhat of a replacement this time around, and not just shutting it down.
  • There is a replacement... Windows Template Studio.
  • Uhm yes...
    You might wanna read my comment again and think yours through. ;)
  • I did. Microsoft named the replacement. Granted, not an identical replacement, but that's what there is.
  • man u an idiot
  • Why, yes, yes I am. My apologies. This week has been way too long.
  • Agreed!
  • Oh the sky is falling! Phone is dead!...Apps are dead!!!...It is truly the end of life as we know it!!!
  • Microsoft is DOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMED!!!
  • Lol
  • Goodbye cruel world!
  • Hardly doomed.  They'll live on, supporting iOS and Android.
  • I'm still jumping out the window.
  • defenestration will make you go blind.
  • I just used this the other to build all the little tedious things, then I expand on it
  • Could we have prefaced with the new thing before alluding to losing a good thing... 👀
  • I've actually used App Studio to make a peronal Beam app & others, and my kids's used it to make apps as well. As long as they keep supporting Kodu, the kids should be ok.
  • I developed a couple apps in the Store using App Studio. Didn't know it also supported Beam.
  • Re: Witheld,
    Your comment makes me wonder if I could write an app.
  • Kevin, the quickest way to get started is to turn a website in to an app (web wrapper). 1) https://appstudio.windows.com/projects/create
    2) select hosted web & preferred preview device
    3) give the app a name
    4) paste the URL, save/finish
    5) generate installable packages To install the app on a phone/pc install Windows App Studio Installer from the store on each device.
  • I'll have to move all dynamic content to static one.
    Facebook integration must be made with a Facebook API and not anymore with the Windows App Studio native integration. It's a shame Microsoft stop Windows App Studio because it was really a great idea to make small apps to present a company for example ! :/
  • was this the thing that originally started out as Spark?
  • Pity this is the first time I've heard of it...
  • I've had too many beers, I read Windows App Store and panicked! lol
  • Why not, just wait a few days. Don't blame the beer 😂😂
  • Let's hope that with the way MSFT does her things and people dropping support for everything windows mobile, we won't all one day wake up to the news that MSFT is closing down the store. It's a scary thought, believe me. I have been tagged a hardcore Windows ambassador among friends and I can't imagine being looked at with that"I told you so" look.
  • Fantastic. The only development environment I actually had time to learn how to use.
  • Aha! I see the writing on the wall... I see it clearly now.
  • I put 5 apps on the windows store using Windows App Studio. Now it's time to move on with VS2017.
  • And yet, GWBasic still works on MS-DOS 6.x
  • This is a weakness of relying on the internet and web based tools.
  • Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well.
  • Should we be afraid of Visual Template Studio shutting down next time? Sometimes I feel like MS is one big experiment.
  • Awesome! Never knew thus existed, gonna use it to build my UWP app in Visual Studio.
  • Hope we could get more tools to develop the apps, and make windows app store the best and loveable.
  • Yeah, shutting down an easy to learn environment for children and code newbies is a great idea. Not! You transition them on to Visual Studio and paid environments for more complex UWP apps. Seriously how hard is it for anyone at Microsoft to understand? That most find development IDEs very daunting. If you want UWP apps you don't cut off a potential app stream. SMDH.
  • It's not replaced by ordinary Visual Studio. It's a more powerfull tool, and it's probably in MS interest that those getting started with these easy tools makes the transition to Visual Studio as easy as possible when the basic tools becomes insufficient. People making apps with App Studio not moving over to more powerfull tools are of little value to MS in the long run.
  • It goes both ways, if you want entice users to become developers = App Studio. If you want to encourage the future generations to code UWP = App Studio. The kids growing up these days have a very short attention span and not much patience. Do you honestly expect them to use an complex IDE to make their first app? By closing the Windows App Studio in favour of the a wizard in visual studio. That is the very definition of a replacement 'service'. People not moving on to more powerful tools is also Microsoft's fault. They nullified all incentives for developers by foregoing the consumer market. Why do you think OEMs are not making any Windows based tablets? There are no apps to push demand, no devices = no apps = zero developer interest. Sure there are some but even there patience is running thin. So you artificially generate demand = XES, devices and marketing. But Microsoft closed down XES, killed the surface mini (I hope they bring it back with Windows 10 S), stayed absolutely silent and contradicted themselves endlessly when they spoke about their future plans thus burning bridges time and time again. Whether Microsoft likes it or not the future will be smartphones until battery and SOC tech improves drastically.
  • Well said techfreak.
  • I used this for an app and helped my sister create an app for school. Was really a great tool.
  • Surely it's nice for the unexperienced, but for the coders this tool is just too strict and simple, so if i ever want to make an app, I'll keep my VS coding :P
  • I just don't see the several hundred dollar cost of Visual Studio being a viable replacement for a free product that allowed people to build simple apps that most likely had a specific and limited audiance.  Who wants to spend that kind of coin so that a couple dozen people can use an app?  
  • Hmm its not great news for developers and the apps are need in Windows app store