Microsoft: The Dev Channel Will Play a Key Role for the Future of Windows

The Windows Insider program as a whole plays a key role in the future of Windows, but Microsoft now says that it plans to rely on the Dev channel specifically to experiment with all kinds of ideas that may or may not make their way to production devices.

In a blog post today, the company explains that the Dev channel will become Microsoft’s very own playground, as it wants users enrolled in this channel to experiment with various improvements that would only go live for everybody when they are ready.

But of course, there’s no guarantee that what Microsoft ships to insiders in the Dev channel would end up launching for everybody out there.

The difference between the Dev and RP channels

“As part of this ongoing evolution, Insiders will see us lean more heavily on the Dev Channel as a place to incubate new ideas, work on long lead items, and control the states of individual features,” Microsoft said.

“This allows us to experiment in a few ways by rolling features in stages to monitor quality and your feedback (which we’ve been doing a lot of already) and testing variations of features (often referred to as “A/B testing”). Features and experiences from these builds could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready. In some cases, these concepts will never ship, but by experimenting more, we can better refine experiences, and deliver solutions in Windows that truly empower our customers to achieve more.”

Microsoft emphasizes that the features that are being tested in the Dev channel aren’t related to a specific Windows release, as the only purpose is to give users the chance to try them out without a certain ETA in mind.

Anyone else who wants to see what’s coming to general customers in the next updates is recommended to stick with the Release Preview channel.