Microsoft relies on ‘100% native’ instead of bad web apps

In its efforts to improve the quality of the Windows 11 user experience, Microsoft also wants to increasingly rely on the use of natively running standard apps. Previously, people had relied on different types of web apps for years – with the corresponding consequences.

Well-known app developer builds new team for native apps

“100% native apps” is the motto under which the well-known developer Rudy Huyn is currently building a new development team for Microsoft. Huyn has been working at Microsoft as a Partner Architect for some time, working on, among other things, the Microsoft Store and File Explorer. Now announced via X/Twitter (via Windows Latest), that he is putting together a team to create better apps for Windows 11. In his post, Huyn explained that he is building a new team to develop apps for Windows, although potential employees do not have to have experience with the platform. It is much more important that you concentrate fully on the product and the future users. Anyone who has developed “great” apps for another platform and attaches importance to creating attractive user experiences is welcome to get in touch, it said.

Microsoft has so far relied almost exclusively on web apps

In connection with the new app development team launched by Huyn, the question naturally quickly arose as to whether these would be Progressive Web Apps (PWA). However, the app specialist denied this and announced that the apps that Microsoft was planning were “100% native”. This raises a number of further questions. “Native apps” for Windows 11 are currently being developed by Microsoft using WinUI, although many components still rely on WebView. In the future, a completely native app would have to use WinUI exclusively. It is also still unclear whether Microsoft wants to replace existing standard apps in Windows with natively running new developments. In many cases, the group has been relying on web apps for years, as the Copilot app, for example, is now just a series of web wrappers.

The group has been developing almost exclusively web apps that run on Windows 11 for years, which is why many external developers have joined this practice. WhatsApp, for example, has now also moved away from the previously available native version of its desktop version. It would be conceivable that the Redmond company would continue to rely on mixed development. Rudy Huyn himself became known, among other things, because years ago he began to solve the problem of the lack of apps for Windows Phone with his own apps. Huyn is no longer involved in reverse engineering popular apps, but works directly at Microsoft.