We’re really excited about the latest Nextgen Reader update (v4.5) for WP8. We worked very hard on bringing Windows Phone and Windows 8 code-base to a common set for this release. Now that it is done, we can focus on your requests (yes, we love them), new features and continue to deliver quick updates. Let’s take a spin through the new changes:

New login experience

Completely secure OAuth2 based login; so no longer you have to share the username or password with the application.

Faster Sync

We brought the very best sync engine to WP8 app; now supports incremental syncing which means a lot less bandwidth usage and faster sync period. Also, we fixed the major sync issue, so you shouldn’t get anymore ‘network connection’ or ‘session expired’ errors.

Bug fixes, design tweaks and a lot more

We fixed couple of bugs in the background task, thus the live tiles should be back to normal with no issues at all. Also, we’ve made some designs improvements to share menu and ‘headline + large’ images list style (see screenshots above). Finally, there are a lot of performance tweaks and enhancements to deliver a smooth experience.

Please find the complete change log here and get the latest update now (if you haven’t yet).

Regarding Windows 8 app and Google Reader shutdown

First, we want to thank you for your great support and patience. We heard your feedback and understand that cross-platform support is one of the most important features to you. Since, we’ve no plans to support other platforms (Android or iOS); we’re no longer considering an independent sync solution at the moment.

So, the next big question, which service will Nextgen Reader support? Well, you’ll have to wait a little more but we promise to announce that very soon (hopefully before the end of this month). Just a small request, please continue to use Google Reader for another couple of weeks. We’ll take care of the migration.

And last but not least, new update for Windows 8 is coming soon with dark theme and lot of enhancements.

Thank you!

– Next Matters