Earlier this morning we took a look at a YouTube video showing off what an app could achieve when tapping into Windows Phone 8.1 to offer more advanced lockscreens. This app, called Animated LockScreen Preview, is what the YouTube video was demonstrating and it's available right now for you to download. It's not a fully functional app (since the APIs haven't been released yet), but is a solid demo of what's to come.
Microsoft's Joe Belfiore has teased that this feature (and necessary APIs for developers) will be available soon, but Venetasoft (the brains behind Movie Maker 8.1) has taken it upon themselves to release an app that demos the feature in action and shows the consumer what the lockscreens could look like on their mobile device. It's a free preview since the Microsoft APIs to fully implement more advanced lockscreen in Windows Phone 8.1 aren't yet available.
All you need to do is take a screenshot of your Start screen and select a background to use as the lockscreen and you're done. Three lockscreen styles are present, two restyled options using lockscreens shown at BUILD and another option to get you excited.
It's noted by the team that once the final APIs are released, they'll release a full version on the store with everything patched together to work in a live environment, as well as some even more awesome effects. We recommend you download the app and give the lockscreen demo a go. Let us know your thoughts in the comments and what you'd like to see from developers regarding these new APIs. While this app itself works on 512MB RAM hardware, the same cannot be said about the feature from Microsoft.
