The story that wasn't. Microsoft is not banning apps with Metro in their name.

One of the bigger stories to catch fire today was the idea that Microsoft were to start denying Windows 8 app certification to developers who use ‘Metro’ in their app's name. 

The story originated from documentation found on the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) that was quite crystal clear on the matter stating such apps will “…fail certification and won't be listed in the Windows Store”.

That wording has now been removed.

We are now getting confirmation through various channels that the wording found today in that documentation had not been added recently, meaning there has been no change in policy. Instead what we are looking at is documentation that had not been updated to reflect the official Windows 8 app certification requirements.

Yup, it was in error.

Certainly an honest mistake that even we took to be truth. But upon doing some digging, the assumption that Microsoft will begin to ban apps that have Metro in their title has turned out to be unfounded as is the extension of that assumption that a ban would also apply to Windows Phone apps. 

As of right now, there is no news here.

As a bit of an editorial, we will say that this Metro-situation is a bit of a mess and official guidance from Microsoft on exactly what is their present policy on the matter would be welcomed. Currently it is not clear if Metro is okay to be used, if Microsoft will be removing past references for it in documentation or what people should use to refer to it instead. Such uncertainty is what is leading to speculation and assumptions on tech sites and it needs to end.

We’re sharing some of these complaints with Microsoft to hopefully get some more answers.