Fonts are so big in WP apps that it's nearly impossible to use a number of programs, such as Twitter and WhatsApp

Oct 18, 2014 12:01 GMT  ·  By

My adventure in the world of Windows Phone continues with a new episode, this time entirely focused on something that's not only ineffective in terms of usability, but also really hard to understand when it comes to the reasons it's been implemented.

Windows Phone fonts. Probably one the most striking difference between Windows Phone and any other mobile operating system out there, be it Android, iOS or BlackBerry 10, is the fonts that Microsoft used on its platform, obviously in an attempt to bring it in line with the desktop Windows 8 and tablet-oriented Windows RT.

At first, everything seems alright, even though some might not like the look of the gigantic fonts that are pretty much all around the operating system. But after spending a bit more time using a Windows Phone handset, the fonts could easily become one of the biggest annoyances.

It's been a week since I switched entirely to Windows Phone, and after so many years with BlackBerry, it's easy to notice something that stands in my way to be productive on the go. And fonts surely do that.

The gigantic fonts look good... but not all the time

Before going into full details on this, let me set things straight: the huge fonts that Microsoft is using in Windows Phone aren't ugly in terms of appearance. In fact, I think they're pretty eye-candy and look good in some cases, but on a bigger screen such as my Lumia 1520, the experience you could get is disappointing to say the least.

First and foremost, it's worth noting from the very beginning that I have already configured Windows Phone to use the smallest font possible.

In “Ease of Access” my settings are the following: smallest text size, high contrast turned off, narrator turned off, and narrator quick launch off. Not that anything besides text size could make a difference, but I received messages from Windows Phone users telling me to change ease of access settings for an improved look of the operating system.

With the smallest font size configured in Windows Phone, the experience I get is not much different from the original configuration, pretty much because I configured the home screen in such a way that I rarely access the list of apps. That's probably one of the best things of Windows Phone: the home screen looks so good and provides so many customization options that it's a real pleasure to see it.

I probably spent one hour to make the home screen look the way I like it, and I'm not saying it like it's a bad thing. No, it's actually one of the things that I love about Windows Phone. No other mobile operating system has it, so kudos to Microsoft for bringing this in.

But getting back to the fonts, it's the apps that could ruin the whole experience. As I told you, I rarely use the app list to launch programs, so the font size in the OS doesn't bother me too much, but there are a number of Windows Phones apps whose design is horrible. Among them: Twitter, Telegram, and WhatsApp. And I'll use the first two to give you a better picture of why I said that.

Such a waste of space

The screenshots you see here are with the Twitter app running on my Lumia 1520, a 6-inch device that looks and feels incredible. But despite the gigantic size of my screen, in Twitter I can barely see four tweets at the same time. Just imagine what happens when someone tweets a picture.

Twitter icons and settings on Windows Phone 8.1
Twitter icons and settings on Windows Phone 8.1

The home, notifications, search, profile icons are so big that they take up nearly a quarter of my screen for absolutely no reason.

And then, the fonts. Before telling me to look into settings, it's worth noting that I have already done it, so I'm using the smallest possible fonts, as was the case with the overall Windows Phone configuration. And still, with this setup, only four tweets fit on the screen at the same time.

Overall, the combination of font size, icon size, space between tweets and other visual elements is troublesome to say the least.

And then, it's Telegram (the same goes for WhatsApp, unfortunately). As you can see in the screenshots in the photo gallery, chatting with my contacts on Telegram is nearly impossible if I wish to keep the keyboard always on to type faster. There are only three messages displayed at the same time, again with a shocking waste of space all over the screen.

Huge fonts, bad spacing, gigantic icons, all contributing to a terrible experience which could in the end disappoint some users so much that they could switch to another platform altogether.

Not Microsoft's fault though

A good thing, however, is that this isn't entirely Microsoft's fault. In most of the cases, Microsoft's apps are well-organized and look much better than those built by third-parties do, as it happens with Twitter and Telegram.

And to prove my point, have a look at Peregrine, my favorite Windows Phone Twitter client which I came across due to the painful experience I had with the official app.

Peregrine uses the available space in a much more effective way, even though there's no doubt that there are even better methods to make the most of a 6-inch screen. The bottom line is that third-parties are the ones that should take care of this, and Microsoft, as the maker of Windows Phone, should work with devs to help them in this regard.

The best thing of all? The future sounds good. It turns out that some third-party software creators have acknowledged these issues (it's really hard not to, seriously), so smaller fonts could come in future updates. WhatsApp is one of the first to do this, but many could follow soon.

Thank God someone is actually listening to all these complaints.

Windows Phone apps on Lumia 1520 (11 Images)

Twitter app on Windows Phone 8.1
Twitter app on Windows Phone 8.1Telegram app on Windows Phone 8.1
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