In February 2015, Microsoft announced that they were purchasing the makers of the popular calendar app Sunrise. As is always the case when a popular app is quoted by a “tech giant” there was much worry and speculation about whether Sunrise would continue as an independent app or be rolled into Microsoft’s larger app strategy.
We no longer need to worry or speculate; in a blog post today, Sunrise confirmed that they have stopped all development on the app and that as of August 31st it will be removed from the app store. The team behind Sunrise will now be working full time to “bring the magic of Sunrise to Outlook”.
Microsoft has kept an arm’s length from the announcement, however, there could be little doubt about where this direction has come from. This will likely spur up more than a little speculation about other popular apps the Microsoft has acquired, none more than Swiftkey.
Swiftkey is one of the most popular keyboard replacement apps for Android with a near zealous following by its more devout users. While Sunrise will be mourned by many, the removal of Swiftkey as an independent app would be the equivalent of app nuclear war.
We’re sad to see such a popular app disappear from the Google app landscape and hope that this isn’t a trend of things to come.
Were you a user of Sunrise? Will you make the switch to outlook for your calendar app? If not what’s your next best calendar app of choice? Let us know below.
Ahh! Noooo! I’m not sure if I’ll use the Outlook version even though I use it for my Outlook email address. We’ll have to see…