Microsoft just made it easier to create iOS and Android apps with Windows

At Build 2017, Microsoft showed off the cross-platform power of its .NET framework, by demonstrating how apps could be easily created on a Windows PC and work on iOS, Android, and Windows all through a single shared code base.

But Microsoft didn’t stop there. While the .NET Standard 2.0 code base allows apps to share code, the original XAML libraries for building user interfaces weren’t cross compatible. So, Microsoft also announced XAML Standard 1.0, a unified markup language for user interface elements that works across Windows, iOS, and Android.

Or, in simpler terms — Microsoft now has a shared code library that allows developers to easily create apps for all three platforms with the same user interface with a minimal amount of effort. Which can only be a good thing for everyone, regardless of the OS you prefer.

Additionally, Microsoft announced functionality for developing iOS apps directly from a Windows PC using a new tool called the Xamarin Live Player. It’s an iOS application that developers can pair with Visual Studio and deploy code to an iOS device, while still maintaining the same debugging utilities of Visual Studio. Developers will also be able to use the same live editing tools from Visual Studio in iOS developement.