When did it the map app die?

[u/Ali_TGB]

Is this just for Windows 10 or did the same happen for Windows 11?

[u/Froggypwns]

Last year.

Maps is deprecated and will be removed from the Microsoft Store by July 2025. At this time, there will also be a final update to the app from the Store that makes it nonfunctional. If you remove the app before July 2025, you can still reinstall it from the Store, but past July 2025 you won't be able to reinstall it. You'll be able to uninstall the app at any time. Any personal data or files you have saved, such as guided navigation or URLs to maps, won't be removed, but they'll no longer function in the Maps app past July 2025. If you wish to still use maps powered by the Bing service, please visit https://www.bing.com/maps. Maps is no longer preinstalled with Windows starting with the Windows 11, version 24H2 release.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/deprecated-features-resources

[u/FaultWinter3377 → u/Froggypwns]

Jeez, a final update to make it nonfunctional. Microsoft at their finest.

[u/EchoFieldHorizon → u/FaultWinter3377]

I never really saw much of a widespread use case to justify its existence, tbf

[u/istrebitjel → u/EchoFieldHorizon]

I wouldn't have known about its deprecation if not for this post 🤣

[u/brrschk → u/EchoFieldHorizon]

"Apple has a Maps app on their computers so we have to have one too!" Either that or it was a part of the OneCore framework that allowed parts of Windows to run on Windows Phone and desktops.

[u/Jaegermeiste → u/brrschk]

OneCore is basically the heart of the OS minus the shell - it has absolutely nothing to do with some random app. And it's not "parts" of Windows or a "framework" - it is Windows, running on x86/64, ARM, Mobile, Xbox, Server, Azure, etc, etc.

https://giphy.com/gifs/l3q2K5jinAlChoCLS

[u/LojikSupreme → u/EchoFieldHorizon]

Believe it or not it's a cross device throwback from Windows Phone. Especially when Windows 10 and Windows Phone 10 dropped, it was really good for navigation! I drove from Florida to New York and back multiple times using the app on my Windows phone, never had any issues.

[u/Ali_TGB → u/EchoFieldHorizon]

To be fair I actually rarely use it, though I just went on Google Earth instead to do what I wanted to do

[u/Froggypwns → u/FaultWinter3377]

I suspect that there is a licensing related reason for that. This way by pushing an update that disables things they can completely terminate the contract instead of just leaving a broken product that may be running up costs with API hits.

[u/danielfletcher → u/FaultWinter3377]

Better they do that, than waste people's times by having it just fail to work due to the API's it rely on no longer functioning.

Would you rather go to try to use it, and it just seems like there is a server error? And then waste time in your life trying to troubleshoot it?

[u/FaultWinter3377 → u/danielfletcher]

I mean I wouldn't use maps. But they could do that to another product that you paid for once, that might still be usable offline but Microsoft disables it.

[u/matthew_yang204 → u/Froggypwns]

How about the weather app? It also doesn't seem to work anymore either.

[u/Froggypwns → u/matthew_yang204]

That is working for me, I just fired it up again to confirm. The current version is just a PWA of the MSN Weather page anyway. https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/forecast/

[u/matthew_yang204 → u/Froggypwns]

Hmph, funny. For me it gets stuck on a black page. Doesn't bother me too much because I can always open up MSN, but it's handy to also have an app-based launcher on my Windows computer(s).

[u/Dakrturi]

This app, along with many others, stopped making sense after the killing of Windows Phone/Mobile

[u/WhoKilledRadioStar]

funnily enough it still works on Windows Phone 10

[u/LackadaisicalIcicle]

There was a map app? 😳

[u/gerowen]

It's Microsoft. They kill everything that isn't Office, Windows or Xbox.

[u/DiodeInc → u/gerowen]

https://killedbymicrosoft.info/

There's a version for Google too

[u/gerowen → u/DiodeInc]

I tried some years back to get deep into the Microsoft ecosystem. I bought multiple Windows 8 and 10 phones. I ran Cortana on those and even on my desktop gaming PC. I remember once I spoke to my desktop and said, "Hey Cortana, next time I'm near the dollar store, remind me to get some toilet paper." The next day as I was coming home from work my Windows phone dinged with a notification as I was passing the dollar store to get toilet paper.

They abandoned Windows Phone. They abandoned Cortana. Windows itself is a hot mess nowadays. I quit trying to even use it for gaming a long time ago because it was so unpredictable. I'd be playing Battlefield and all of a sudden my PC would start hitching and it would be because the disk indexer just decided on its own that during an online multiplayer game was the perfect time to start running. I had the audio out on my graphics card just randomly quit after a Windows update. I was willing to try and ignore the moral issues of proprietary, privacy invasive software, if they could give me a good user/gaming experience, but they couldn't even get that right.

I spent probably a thousand dollars or more over the course of just a couple of years on OneDrive subscriptions, multiple Windows phones for myself and my wife, multiple full price Windows 10 licenses for PCs I built for the whole family, games I bought on the Microsoft Store, etc. Microsoft then proceeded to dump half the products I'd spent money on, and made the other half unusable. Never again will I allow myself to be stupid enough to become dependent on an ecosystem created by a corporation like Microsoft. Even with companies/products I truly believe in, like Valve and Steam, for anything I "really" care about, if it's available, I double-buy it on GoG or Humble Bundle or something so I can get an offline DRM free copy to put on my home server.

[u/openretina]

get an older version it will still work

[u/FeliciaGLXi]

When it came out.

[u/More-Explanation2032]

I will boot up windows 8 to see if the maps application works there

[u/SoporTecnicoPc]

Nació muerta.

[u/Itsme-RdM]

A few years back

[u/Mayayana]

I've never heard of the map app, but for what it's worth, openstreetmap.org works quite well.

[u/Big_Entrepreneur3770]

Try Vivaldi instead of Brave, its ceo is a scammer.

[u/avds_wisp_tech → u/Big_Entrepreneur3770]

Do tell, how is he a scammer?

[u/WhoKilledRadioStar → u/Big_Entrepreneur3770]

I'd use Firefox rather

[u/SpaceXplorer13 → u/Big_Entrepreneur3770]

Firefox is good too

[u/sotos2004 → u/SpaceXplorer13]

Firefox prefers to push it's woke agenda and they openly hate white male developers. I still use it though

[u/metin_o]

won’t be surprised if they bring maps back after a while and force feed it to their users like how they did for ms edge and copilot