Transform my WP8 into an universal app

Question

Hi,

I have a WP8(8.1) app and want it to extend to an universal app. So I have to make a new solution, but is it possible to substitute the WP project in this solution with my existing WP8.1 project? So this part would be very simple.

Using the template from VS seems to have a lot of different libs and so on, so it would be much more work

Greetings

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Hanno

Answer 1

You basically have two options there:

a) Build a new Windows 8.1 App separately, upload it to the store and link it with your existing WP8 App in the store. It will then show up as "Universal App" to users.

b) Technically move over to a true Universal App. In that case you will have to redo your whole UI on the WP side as WP8 Apps are built using the Silverlight UI framework. So most of the UI definitions just aren't compatible.

You will likely be able to reuse most of your business logic in both cases. If you want to minimize overall effort required in the long run moving to a true Universal App might be beneficial. You could however just do a Windows 8.1 App with shared business logic and simply create the WP part later on when you find the time or require features that aren't available to the Silverlight version.

I assume you created the 8.1 version of your App by upgrading your 8.0 project to 8.1 (which gives you a Silverlight 8.1 App).

Answer 2

Hi,

thanks for fast answer. So, I think, option a is the more easy way to go.

I don't have to make a WP8.1 version of my app, as long as I don't use any of the new features? Only a Win8.1 app

Greetings

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Hanno

Answer 3

Exactlly - there are two different things that are named Universal Apps:

From a Customers perspective it means that the Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone version are linked in the store. If they buy one of them, they can also use the other.

From a Developers perspective you can build universal Apps that share the majority of their code with the ability to design separate views, etc. in the specific project types. If you build one of those it will still generate separate .appx packages for the phone and Windows (only the source code is shared in that case).

You can find more info on how to associate a Windows Phone and a Windows 8 App with each other in this article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/jj206733%28v=vs.105%29.aspx