Many of you have been asking me on Twitter when we’ll release a new Windows 10 Mobile Insider build, and I know that you’re anxious for an update. The team is working hard to get a fresh build out, and we’re treating it with high priority. We are pushing hard to get a build out this week, but I thought that since the time between builds is longer than we expected I would share a few more details with you about what’s been going on here behind the scenes.
We’ve received a lot of great feedback on our last Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview build – Build 10512. In the current build going through our internal rings now most of the known issues introduced with Build 10512 as well as many issues that have been reported have been fixed – mobile hotspot functionality now works, Quiet HoursDo Not Disturb has been fixed, pinch and zoom in the Maps app now works as expected and the delay in showing the date and time on the Lock screen has been improved. However, as new builds with these fixes passed through our internal rings, we discovered a few issues that we were not comfortable releasing to Windows Insiders until we had fixes for those as well. Each time that happens, we have to do a few things:
- The team responsible for the area diagnoses the problem and fixes the code.
- We then verify that the issue is properly fixed, and doesn’t create any side effects.
- That change then gets integrated into a new build.
- And we send the build with that fix back through our internal rings.
We have been busy doing this as normal as part of the ring progression process I’ve outlined before – so the train has been moving and overall the builds are getting more robust and reliable. But with each blocking issue, we start back through our internal ring validation with any additional changes that were ready at that time. Unfortunately, we had to reset our ring progression 3 times over the past several weeks because of 3 issues that would have affected Insiders.
When we release builds to Insiders, even on the Fast ring, we want to make sure people can do everyday activities on their phones – answering phone calls, sending and receiving text messages, installing and using apps, and all of the other basics. We may have some issues (which we’ll note as known issues for builds we flight), but we know we get the best feedback from Insiders who are really able to use these builds normally and then tell us what they think.
The good news is that we believe we have fixes for the issues blocking us from flighting a new Windows 10 Insider Preview build, and we’re going through the internal rings now.
Thanks for your patience, we’re doing our best to make the wait for a new build as short as possible.
Thanks,
g