LDS Tools Missing from Windows 10 Store

[jkentner]

Another alternative would be to open the code to the community and allow them to continue development. Although does this mean that the LDS Gospel Library on Windows (mobile or PC) will meet the same fate?

[russellhltn]

The Church has asked that the app be removed from the Windows Store (both on phones and PCs) as it has elected to not expend the necessary funds to bring the app up to par or to meet legal privacy requirements necessary in various countries.

Can you shed any light on this? I thought the app was being developed by an all-volunteer effort. So I'm not sure how church funds comes into play.

[ToManyLetters]

Can you shed any light on this? I thought the app was being developed by an all-volunteer effort. So I'm not sure how church funds comes into play.

Yes. While the app itself was developed with volunteer effort, the app needs to meet certain legal requirements for it to be available worldwide to ensure that the Church obeys local privacy laws. This necessitates reviews of the app to ensure it is in compliance. This is the money that would have been necessary to keep the project going. Such money was not allocated for the project, and so the project has been changed to inactive here on LDS Tech and the app is no longer listed in the Windows Store (which is why it doesn't turn up in search results).

[ToManyLetters]

Think of how many users could be reached through windows 10 universal apps, through tablets and pc's. I understand the phone issue. If the church used this theory with missionary work, the Book of Mormon would be translated in precious few languages. Hopefully they will pick this up again sometime soon.

You're preaching to the choir here. I believe in UWP, but it seems too few do.

Another alternative would be to open the code to the community and allow them to continue development. Although does this mean that the LDS Gospel Library on Windows (mobile or PC) will meet the same fate?

The project was already as open-sourced as the project could be, considering the sensitivity of the data, and the project was entirely volunteer-driven already, through developer interest in the project was admittedly minimal.

Gospel Library for Windows appears to be safe for now, and a new Windows 10 UWP app is on the way and currently in closed testing. If we want to keep the project alive, though, we really need more developers, with MSDN licenses, willing to donate some of their time to the project. People complain about the slow progress the app is making, but fail to understand that the entirety of the project is basically kept going by three developers in what time they can spare. Three people are split between the phone app development, the desktop/tablet app development, bug-squashing on both, and developing the new UWP app. We're stretched incredibly thin, but we are doing what we can with the resources we have.

[sbradshaw]

If the church used this theory with missionary work, the Book of Mormon would be translated in precious few languages. Hopefully they will pick this up again sometime soon.

I understand what you're saying, but this may not be the best analogy. The Church actually doesn't publish a Book of Mormon in a given language until there are a good number of active members who speak that language as their primary language, and there's a strong likelihood that the number of members for that language will grow (among other criteria). So it is for the mobile apps. Proportionally, mobile Windows users are a small group, and there's not enough evidence at this point to assume that the mobile Windows market share will grow significantly.

Now, if the focus were to broadened beyond mobile platforms, I wouldn't complain. I'd love to see a Mac version of Gospel Library.

[jkentner]

If the church used this theory with missionary work, the Book of Mormon would be translated in precious few languages. Hopefully they will pick this up again sometime soon.

I understand what you're saying, but this may not be the best analogy. The Church actually doesn't publish a Book of Mormon in a given language until there are a good number of active members who speak that language as their primary language, and there's a strong likelihood that the number of members for that language will grow (among other criteria). So it is for the mobile apps. Proportionally, mobile Windows users are a small group, and there's not enough evidence at this point to assume that the mobile Windows market share will grow significantly.

Now, if the focus were to broadened beyond mobile platforms, I wouldn't complain. I'd love to see a Mac version of Gospel Library.

If this is the case, wouldn't that mean that the Gospel Library for Windows Mobile will share the same fate as LDS Tools?

[russellhltn]

If this is the case, wouldn't that mean that the Gospel Library for Windows Mobile will share the same fate as LDS Tools?

Far fewer privacy issues with LDS Tools. All GL has to protect is your login information. LDS Tools has a ton of information about other members.

Although, I'm a little puzzled - I'd think most of the privacy checks would be in the back end services so the user's device would never get information they weren't supposed to have. But there may be still details about securing that information in the app from leaking out.

[eblood66]

But there may be still details about securing that information in the app from leaking out.

For leaders sensitive information gets downloaded during sync. Ensuring that information is secure on the device isn't a trivial thing.

[jkentner]

I just want to make sure this is accurate after reading all of the posts. It doesn't come all the way down to the number of Windows mobile platform users (because Gospel Library continues to be developed). It is more of a formula related to number of Windows Mobile users and the cost to develop security, and the number of users was deemed insufficient to invest in the cost to properly secure LDS Tools?

[carlsopa]

This is super disappointing. The decision to remove it from the store seems to be based upon the fact that there are not a lot of Windows Phone 10 users; however, it completely ignores the fact that the same app works on all Windows 10 computers. Removing it from the store also removes it from the Windows App store for all 400+ Million installations of Windows 10 in a 192 countries around the world.

It doesn't make sense that this app be removed from the Windows 10 store when there are so many members in countries where Windows is the most prevalent computer. The decision to remove it should be reconsidered.

Why do I care? Removal of this app has a huge impact on me and my family. I have four tablets and three windows phones. Why in the world would I use windows phones? Because the parental controls are way better than iOS an Android. I've tried to use the church website for this information and it is very clunky from a mobile device.

What can be done to help reverse this decision?