By Andrew Armstrong 
If you landed here looking for Windows 10 Mobile release dates or a technical preview, that platform is gone. Windows 10 Mobile hit end of support on 10 December 2019, and no phone has run it as a supported OS since. Microsoft hasn’t built a phone OS of its own since, and it isn’t planning to.
What matters for admins in 2026 is what replaced it: you’re managing iOS and Android instead, and the tool for that is Microsoft Intune. This covers what actually happened to Windows Phone and how to enrol and manage iOS and Android devices with Intune today.
Quick Facts
- Windows 10 Mobile’s last release was version 1709 (October 2017); end of support was 10 December 2019. No security updates since.
- Microsoft stopped selling Lumia-branded Windows phones by early 2017 and confirmed there’d be no further Windows Phone hardware or feature development.
- There is no Windows Phone MDM channel in Intune. Device management for phones now means
iOS/iPadOSandAndroid. - Android Device Administrator enrollment stopped working for devices with Google Mobile Services in August 2024. Use Android Enterprise work profile instead.
- Intune manages iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Linux from a single console, so there’s no separate mobile-only product to license.
What actually happened to Windows Phone
Windows Phone 7 and 8 gave way to Windows 10 Mobile in 2015, which was meant to unify phones with the rest of the Windows 10 family. It never got the app support or OEM commitment it needed. Microsoft quietly stopped making Lumia hardware, third-party manufacturers walked away, and by mid-2017 a Microsoft executive publicly confirmed there’d be no new features and no new hardware. The platform limped on in maintenance mode until formal end of support on 10 December 2019.
If you’ve got a Windows 10 Mobile device still in a drawer or, worse, still in active use, it hasn’t received a security patch in over five years. Don’t put it anywhere near corporate email or data.
The replacement isn’t a phone, it’s a management strategy
Microsoft didn’t replace Windows Phone with another phone OS. It backed Android and iOS instead, shipping Outlook, Teams, OneDrive and the rest as first-party apps on both, and building Intune out as the single console for managing all of it. If you used to push Exchange ActiveSync policies or an MDM profile to a Windows Phone fleet, the modern equivalent is enrolling those same users’ iPhones and Android devices into Intune and applying compliance and app protection policies there.
Enrolling iOS and iPadOS devices
Which method you use depends on who owns the device:
| Method | Best for | Control level |
| Automated Device Enrollment (ADE) | Company-owned, via Apple Business Manager | Full, supervised, zero-touch |
| Company Portal enrollment | BYOD where full device management is acceptable | Full device management |
| Account-driven user enrollment | BYOD, iOS 13+ (Apple’s preferred BYOD route) | Work partition only, personal data untouched |
| App protection policies (MAM), no enrollment | BYOD where the user won’t enrol the whole device | App-level only, no device enrollment |
For a personal phone, account-driven user enrollment or MAM-only app protection policies are usually the right call. They keep the organisation’s data in managed apps without giving IT visibility into the rest of the device, which makes the BYOD conversation with staff far easier.
Enrolling Android devices
Android enrollment runs entirely through Android Enterprise now. The old Device Administrator method is retired for any device with Google Mobile Services:
| Method | Ownership | Notes |
| Personally owned work profile | BYOD | Standard BYOD route, keeps personal and work apps separate |
| Fully managed (COBO) | Corporate | Work-only device, enrol via QR code, NFC, token or Google Zero Touch |
| Corporate-owned work profile (COPE) | Corporate | Allows limited personal use alongside work |
| Dedicated devices (COSU) | Corporate | Kiosk-style, no user account, e.g. scanners or shared devices |
| Device Administrator | Legacy | Deprecated for GMS devices since August 2024, don’t use for new enrolments |
If you’ve still got devices enrolled via Device Administrator, migrate them to Android Enterprise work profile and add an enrollment restriction that blocks Device Administrator outright, so nobody accidentally re-enrols the old way.
Getting a device enrolled: the short version
Quick Steps
- Confirm licensing. Intune Plan 1 is bundled with Microsoft 365 Business Premium and most E3/E5 plans, or it’s available standalone.
- Set Intune as MDM authority in the Intune admin centre if it isn’t already, and confirm Entra ID licensing covers your users.
- Block legacy Android Device Administrator enrollment via an enrollment restriction, so new devices can’t use it.
- Create an enrollment profile for your chosen method (work profile, ADE, account-driven enrollment) and assign it to a device or user group.
- Have the user install Company Portal from the App Store or Play Store, sign in, and follow the enrollment prompts.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still buy a Windows Phone in 2026?
Not new. Windows phones haven’t been manufactured since around 2017, and any used device you’d find is unpatched and unsupported. There’s no reason to deploy one for anything work-related.
What officially replaced Windows Phone?
Nothing, from a hardware or OS standpoint. Microsoft’s strategy shifted to shipping its apps and services on iOS and Android instead, and building Intune into the management layer that covers both, alongside Windows, macOS and Linux.
Do I need separate tools to manage iOS and Android?
No. Intune handles both from one console, with platform-specific enrollment methods and policy types but a single admin experience, reporting view and Conditional Access integration through Entra ID.
Is Android Device Administrator completely dead?
For any device with Google Mobile Services, yes, Microsoft withdrew support in August 2024. It technically still functions on Android builds without GMS, but Microsoft’s guidance is to move everything to Android Enterprise regardless.
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