Microsoft receives extension until July 31st for Google Sync support on Windows Phone

Microsoft has announced that its discussions with Google have borne fruit and there will be an extension to the cessation of Exchange ActiveSync support for Windows Phone devices. Support was originally supposed to expire on January 31st, but Google has extended the service until July 31st while Microsoft implements a solution to the problem of syncing calendar and contacts.

If the cessation had gone through, Windows Phone users would no longer have been able to natively synchronize their contacts and calendar, though email would still work through the IMAP protocol. While Apple’s iOS has its own Gmail app and supports CardDAV and CalDAV, Windows Phone 7.5 and Windows Phone 8 don’t have such options just yet. In a blog post released today, Microsoft says that it will issue an OTA update for Windows Phone users to support the two protocols.

You may have seen a recent announcement from Google regarding changes to the Google Sync service used to connect devices to Google services (Google Sync utilizes the Exchange ActiveSync, or EAS, protocol from Microsoft to synchronize email, contacts, and calendar).  We’re happy to share today that Google will extend their support for new Windows Phone connections via Google Sync until July 31, 2013.

At the same time, the Windows Phone team is building support into our software for the new sync protocols Google is using for calendar and contacts—CalDAV and CardDAV. These new protocols, combined with our existing support for the IMAP protocol for email, will enable Windows Phone users to continue to connect to Google services after July 31, 2013.

Good stuff from both companies.

Source: Microsoft