This time it’s LinkedIn and users need to turn to browsers

Jun 13, 2017 09:27 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft removed the official LinkedIn app from the Windows Store, as the company itself is considering its options when it comes to its mobile strategy.

This means that without an official app, users need to turn to Microsoft Edge to connect to LinkedIn, even though a dedicated application would obviously come in a lot handier.

While the decision is a little bit unexpected since LinkedIn is a company that’s owned by Microsoft, what’s even more surprising is that the app removal took place without an official announcement. Users can no longer download the app, not only with a search in the Store but also when pointing the browser to the official Store page.

The app was doomed anyway

And while this is another loss for Windows phones, the LinkedIn app is not such a big loss anyway, as it hasn’t been updated in a long time and it was projected to be discontinued in the coming months because it was running on Silverlight.

As part of Microsoft’s “overhauling” efforts for Windows phones, the company is giving up on Silverlight apps, which means that many of its own apps would be discontinued unless they are transitioned to universal apps.

At this point, since an official announcement from Microsoft is missing entirely, there’s still no sign of a UWP version of LinkedIn, though this could really make sense given the fact that Redmond should be the pioneer of this transition from Silverlight to universal apps.

In case you were wondering, the Android and iOS versions of the LinkedIn app are still there in their stores, and just as expected, they’re being updated frequently with new features and bug fixes.

But as far as the Windows phone version of the app is concerned, it’s hit by the same uncertainty that’s affecting the whole platform altogether, with nobody knowing exactly what’s happening and what Microsoft plans to do next.