We first reported about an OnStar app for Windows Phone in development back in early April. It took four and a half months, but last week the official OnStar RemoteLink app for Windows Phone hit the Store. The comment section in that article showed a lot of you with Camaros, Silverados, and other cars from General Motors as happy campers. But does it work for all OnStar equipped vehicles?
USA Today has a nice piece on the new app. Once you get past the regular mistakes a traditional news outlet has when talking about Windows Phone (like calling it a Windows phone, which makes me twitch for some reason), you have a nice article on the app and the platform itself. You also learn a few things about the OnStar app, like how it’s the first remote telemetry app from an automaker that works on the four primary mobile operating systems – iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone.
Unfortunately, you also learn some things about the app that a few of you might not be jazzed about. The app might not work with a few car models that work fine on the iOS or Android version of RemoteLink. This apparently is because GM didn’t see the rise of Windows Phone and therefore didn’t account for its existence when the auto software was loaded onto vehicles.
How and why this is a technical problem is beyond me, but that’s what GM has told USA Today. Problems that may arise include the inability to hold a solid connection and requiring users to re-pair the app on Windows Phone or just plain incapability with the vehicle.
So how was the experience been for those of you with a GM vehicle, required OnStar subscription, and the RemoteLink app for Windows Phone? Feel free to share the model/year of your vehicle and whether or not it works with the Windows Phone version of the app.
Want to grab OnStar RemoteLink for Windows Phone? Get it in the Store, use the QR code below, or swipe to the right in our WPCentral app. It’s a free app, but you’ll need a car from GM with OnStar to get any use out of it.
Source: USA Today
Thanks for the tip Corbin B!
