Microsoft Reveals Windows Phone 8.1 Soon Getting Folders for Apps

Microsoft's Windows Phone OS might soon include a new feature already available on iOS, and on some versions of Android - the ability for users to create folders for the simpler management of apps - according to information on a quickly-pulled support page.

The Redmond giant accidentally made live one of the web pages (now pulled down) that clearly mentioned steps as to how to create a folder on Windows Phone 8.1, put apps inside it, and how to remove it. The web page (cached here) mentions that users will be able to stack one app tile over the other to create a folder and can rename it. For deleting apps from the folder, one can simply open the folder and drag the desired app to anywhere outside the folder.

This app folder-creation is similar to Apple's implementation with iOS (since iOS 4), of dragging one app over another, and then more apps into the folder.

The Windows Phone app folder-creation feature will probably not be available for Windows Phone 7.5 Mango or even for Windows Phone 8 users as the phrase in the end of the web page says "To create folders on your Start screen, you need to have Windows Phone 8.1 Update installed on your phone."

This indicates the folder-creation feature will only arrive with the first update for Windows Phone 8.1, which is said to arrive in July or August as per The Verge.

Furthermore, Jerry Berg, Senior Software Development Engineer at Microsoft, said on a podcast interview (via Phonearena) that "something is going to happen in the Windows Phone space which is going to upset the entire world across anything...wait for it, its going to be pretty amazing,"

This could mean pretty much anything of course, but now with Cortana official, the only previously anticipated feature for the Windows Phone platform was the 3D Touch or Real Motion interface that was expected to arrive on the rumoured Nokia Lumia handset that was codenamed 'Goldfinger'.

The rumoured 3D touch interface uses the device's sensors to detect interactions that are off-the-glass. The Nokia Goldfinger is said to come hand gesture support which will let users navigate on a phone without touching the display, while other gestures under consideration include flipping and scrolling.

Following the theme, another handset from Microsoft was recently leaked with a similar gesture-recognition feature speculated to let users navigate on the phone without touching the display. The 'McLaren', as it is supposedly codenamed, is said to be released on a range of US carriers later this year.