There is no easy way to write this, so I won’t beat around the bush too much.
We’re cancelling the Windows Phone version of Toshl.
We’re immensely sorry and disappointed that this is how it turned out. Our intention was to bring the full Toshl Finance 2.0 functionality to Windows Phone, but it increasingly became clear that this is no longer feasible.
What happened?
When we started to plan the 2.0 version of Toshl a few years back, Windows Phone was one of the three main mobile platforms that we were going to make the app for. As we’re a small team, launching simultaneously on three mobile platforms, web app for desktops and tablets, as well as a new backend system was not a realistic proposition.
Therefore we needed to prioritize which mobile platforms to launch on first. We did so based on the general market share of the mobile platform, share among Toshl users, as well as the difficulty of development given the number of different hardware configurations, testing etc. We decided on launching the new backend coupled with the web app and the iOS app first, with Android coming some months later and Windows Phone a bit later still.
When we initially started thinking about our 2.0 plans, the Windows Phone platform was the smallest of the three, but with a reasonable chance for a comeback. By the time we were able to fully start the Windows Phone app development, those chances of a comeback had unfortunately dwindled. We decided to persevere.
We had already made promises to people using Toshl on Windows Phone. Promises which we intended to keep. The wireframes and designs were long ready, as was our Windows Phone developer, who was previously helping to build parts of the new Toshl backend system. If nothing else, the platform’s market share seemed sufficient to at least recoup our development costs with the new Windows Phone version.
We then hurried to catch up with the other two Toshl mobile apps. Made plans, time estimates, reviewed the designs once more, kept developing. Time estimates unfortunately turned out to be overly optimistic. The release still seemed in sight, we re-evaluated the plans, set some new deadlines and went back to work.
While the app showed a lot of progress and seemed ready for Beta testing at a superficial glance, it still had major reliability issues which prevented us from moving out of the internal alpha testing stage. Some of the features of the other apps were still omitted for expediency’s sake. We’d had to finish them later on, while still maintaining the apps and fixing some bugs which inevitably crept in. This, coupled with the rapid fall of downloads on the Windows Store as well as the general market share of the platform brought in the heavy realization.
We cannot go on developing for Windows Phone.
Breaking our promise to finish the 2.0 version for Windows was the last thing we wanted to do, but circumstances unfortunately left us between Scylla and Charbydis. We have to consider the future of the entire Toshl company and apply ourselves to projects which will enable the company to prosper and evolve for a long time to come.
What now?
We are stopping the development of the Windows Phone app.
The current version of the app will be available on the Windows Store until May 15th, when it will be withdrawn.
The sync of the current app and other old Toshl v1 apps will continue to work until September 2017 when we will be shutting down the old system.
The v2 apps will continue to sync normally throughout this time. Make sure you have syncing turned on. By syncing, your data form the Windows Phone app is automatically backed up on the server and you can access it using the v2 web app or other Toshl apps.
Toshl Pro
Some of you might have already bought yearly Toshl Pro subscriptions going past September 2017. Sadly we won’t be able to provide services on Windows Phone beyond that point. You will be able to continue to use the toshl.com web app and Toshl apps on other mobile platforms with the same Toshl account.
If you would like a refund for the part of the Toshl Pro subscription beyond September 2017, please contact us on support@toshl.com.
If you upgraded using in-app purchases inside the WP app, things are a bit more complicated as the payment system there unfortunately does not enable us to process the refunds ourselves. Please contact the Windows Store support. Alternatively, we can offer an extension of Toshl Pro for use on other platforms if that is an option for you.
What will you do with the existing work on the app?
Not much really. As we can’t invest further resources into it, I am afraid it will only be archived. We are willing to share our existing source code if you would like to make an unofficial Toshl client app connecting via the developer API.
If you’re a coder and this sounds like an interesting challenge, please contact us and we’ll do what we can to help.
We once more offer our sincere apologies for this turn of events and hope that you continue to use Toshl apps to help with your finances in the future.