Today, at Microsoft's Ignite IT and enterprise conference in Orlando, Florida the Windows Insider Team announced a new enhancement for the Feedback Hub was being worked on for Insiders. The feature will notify Insiders when their submitted feedback has been fixed or addressed for future builds.
Currently, once a user provides feedback they have to proactively check – and recheck – to see if the issue has been resolved, but in future releases that won't be the case.
Dona Sarkar, who oversees the Windows Insider Program, gave details about the new feature, jokingly called "The Blair SIUF (System Initiated User Feedback) Project" after Blair Glennon, who leads the Windows Insider Program for Business sub-program and Insider Insights.
Users will be notified in a few different ways that their feedback has been addressed:
- Pop-up notification – A toast notification will arrive letting the user know their feedback has been addressed or updated.
- Email – Users can receive an email informing them of the fix.
- Blogs/webcast – As usual, changes and fixes will still be added to Insider release build notes on the Windows Insider blog.
Additionally, when a user submits feedback that is later added to a collection - a grouping of similar feedback to reduce duplicates by users – Insiders will also get a notification alerting them of the merger to make tracking the issue simpler.
UWP app for Insider release notes
Finally, it was announced at the same Ignite session that a Universal Windows App (UWP) and web site is in the works that will bring all the OS build release notes for all the Windows Insider Rings (Preview, Slow, Fast, Skip Ahead) under one roof.
At a glance, users will be able to see the latest build release strings for all Insider rings, get release notes, and eventually more including changes to inbox apps, e.g., MSN News, Weather, Groove, Mail, etc.
Currently, users must go to the Windows Insider Blog to be updated on what the changes are in the latest build or pull down info in the running blog section in the Feedback Hub. Things will finally get much easier going forward though with a dedicated app for just release notes across the OS and first-party applications.
The Windows Insider Blog will then be used for larger feature announcements or significant changes to the program.
No ETA just yet on all of these changes, but they are being worked on already, and it shouldn't be too long. The Windows Insider Team has been hard at work to bring many new features and improvements to the program based on user feedback, and more should be detailed in the coming weeks on the Windows Insider blog.
