Windows 10 Technical Preview for Phones now available

As expected, the very first build of Windows 10 “Technical Preview” for Phones has been released and is yet available for only six Lumia smartphones including Lumia 630, Lumia 635, Lumia 636, Lumia 638, Lumia 730, or Lumia 830.

The company clearly mentions that this is the very early build of the software which is still under development and you will be going to see some rough edges. You will encounter bugs, experience things that are just not finished yet, find a UX that is not polished at all.  That explains it well as a preview for interesting users who want play with upcoming features of Windows 10 for Phones. The company wants you to experience this very early version of the software and give your feedback.

In fact the Windows 10 Technical Preview for Phones is expected to be less complete than version of the software for PC. For an early preview, it’s only for you if you being a customer want to have an early look at it or if you are a developer or IT professional working with Windows Phones.

Look at the early features and improvements.

• Full-size Background Image for Start: We believe phones should be intensely personal – so we’ve added another option to customize the start screen with a full-size background image.
• More Quick Actions in Action Center: We’ve increased the number of quick actions available to you. Windows Phone 8.1 has four programmable quick actions – but with Windows 10 you also get an expanded view that can now have up to three rows.
• Interactive Notifications: Notifications are now interactive, allowing you to take action directly like dismissing an alarm, or seeing images for maps. For example, for text messages, when the toast pops, you can quickly reply inline via text or voice.
• Significantly enhanced speech-to-text capability: You can talk to virtually any data field you choose. Your words show up as you speak them – and punctuation appears automatically.  This feature is smart enough to understand when to use ‘two’ – the number — instead of ‘too’ as in ‘also’.
• More powerful Photos app: From your very first launch, Photos will show the aggregated set of all your local photos and all your OneDrive photos

If you own one of the yet-supported devices and want to try Windows 10 as Technical Preview for Phones, you need to first join the Windows Insider Program. Then install the Windows Insider app. Open the app and follow the on screen instructions to register your device. Now check for updates through phone settings

Why not on other and specially high-end devices?

Officially there is no words about when this build of Windows 10 for Phones will hit the other Lumia devices. However, the software giant clarifies the unavailability of Windows 10 Technical Preview on high-end Lumia devices e.g. Lumia 930 or Lumia 1520 as there’s a function or feature the company wants or requires to dynamically create enough space on disk to adjust the OS partition for install process – that’s “partition stitching”. The currently compatible devices are the ones configured with sufficiently sized OS partitions.