What you need to know
- WordPress got an official Microsoft Store app on June 21.
- It lets you use WordPress as you normally would through your browser.
- It's rated M for Mature.
Wordpress.com has arrived on the Microsoft Store in the form of an official app released by Automattic, Inc., the company behind WordPress (via WalkingCat). The app is, by all accounts, virtually identical to the traditional browser-based experience, so your mileage with its utility may vary. Here's the app's official description, as stated by Automattic.
"Give your big ideas a home on the web. Manage or create your WordPress blog or website right from your desktop.
- Pick the right look and feel from a wide selection of WordPress themes.
- Create updates, stories, photo essays announcements -- anything!
- Bring your posts and pages to life with photos and video from your camera and albums, or find the perfect image with the in-app collection of free-to-use pro photography.
- View stats in real time to keep track of the activity on your site by exploring daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly insights.
- Get notifications about comments, likes and new followers.
- Reply to comments and interact with your readers as you grow your website or blog."
Now, that's all well and good. But where the real excitement is found is in the app's ESRB rating. Due to WordPress' emphasis on user interactions (it is a blogging platform, after all) which aren't moderated and censored to ensure a completely family-friendly blogging ecosphere, this app shares the same ESRB rating as the likes of Quantum Break and Grand Theft Auto V, which feature intense gun violence, language, and all other manners of things that get a piece of software hit with the "M for Mature" label.
The rating is also accompanied by the disclaimer that the WordPress app features in-app purchases, which apparently influences said rating or at least warrants a disclaimer alongside it.
If it's not clear, that M rating is probably the only mildly amusing item about this app's release. Otherwise, it's a pretty straightforward bit of news. WordPress bloggers, rejoice; you now have an app that lets you do exactly what you've been doing for years now.
Want to break into blogging? WordPress is the way to go. It has free plans, is simple enough for beginners to learn, and complex enough for blog masters to sink their teeth into.
