Tile backgrounds in WP8.1

When Windows Phone 7 was released with its fresh new metro interface, there was a notable lack of customizability. The start screen was made of tiles that came in 2 sizes, both of which were space consuming. The background was either black or white, and the tiles could only be one of few preset theme colors.
With Windows Phone 8, and the introduction of smaller, icon-sized tiles, one of the issues was solved, but that still left a lot to be desired. Users were still unable have a background the way they could with Windows 8.

Enter Theme Apps #

Apps like Shining Themes and Skinery Themes capitalized on this gap, and essentially allow the user to customize the look of their start screens to be quite attractive. However, being third party apps utilizing a walk-around to achieve the effect, they were quite troublesome to set up, and were limited in ability. They pinned a set of custom ‘shortcut’ tiles that each showed a part of the selected background image, and linked to the app the user wanted in its place. This set up meant that users couldn’t rearrange or realign tiles from the start screen, and if they attempted, would end up with a messy back ground. This didn’t come close to the customizability allowed out of the box in iOS or Android devices, which had much more space between icons to make conventional backgrounds possible.

Windows Phone 8.1 #

At Build 2014, Microsoft showed off Windows Phone 8.1 in all its glory. If you missed it, Joe Belfiore has a nice blog post about it. Or you could jump straight to his 15-minute youtube video about the same thing. Either way, you will find yourself marveling at the majestic beauty that is the implementation of tile backgrounds. While some would argue that conventional backgrounds are better, I beg to differ on that. Windows Phone Start Screen doesn’t exactly have the kind of space that the Windows 8’s Start Screen has. Tiles cover as much as 95% of it, and a background for the remaining 5% would be quite pointless. My only gripe is that apps that feature tiles with abnormal backgrounds (i.e. tiles with background colors independent of the system theme) do not work well with the backgrounds. I found a quick response to from at least one app, where the option to use the system accent on tiles popped up in an update. Hopefully, more developers will consider this (and this includes Microsoft – xbox musix, xbox video, games, office, etc still use custom colored tiles).

Future Hopes #

Going forward, as smartphones becomes more powerful and efficient, I believe we could have some very interesting updates. Things like animated backgrounds (GIF, MNG, aPNG, etc) and overlay effects (like you would find on TouchWIZ) comes to mind. Another possible visual tweak could be a set up such that the image would occupy even the space between tiles, and to the sides, while maintaining a difference in opacity (darker outside the tiles, for instance) to make the tiles more apparent. This, among others, would make the windows phone start screen truly personal.

Conclusion #

With every iteration, Windows Phone keeps getting more and more attractive to the consumer. Already a colorful OS with colorful hardware, this update continues the trend. While some will no doubt be disappointed that they are going with tile backgrounds (“windows”), it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that with the small visibility of the actual background, there is no point in having an image there. I wouldn’t disagree with more color options than black and white for that background, though. Having said that, the best way forward is to embrace what’s coming, and enjoy it. I for one an looking forward to Windows Phone Blue.
In the meantime, check out shining themes or skinery themes in the store to get yourself accustomed to tile backgrounds. The update itself will show up on your devices in the coming months, or if you have signed up for the developer preview, sometime around mid-April.