Path launches for Windows Phone as a public beta

Path today quietly launched an app for Windows Phone, but there’s a small catch: it’s a public beta. Nevertheless, the social network has arrived on Microsoft’s mobile platform and you can grab the app now directly from the Windows Phone Store.

While Path doesn’t have an announcement regarding the release, the app’s description emphasizes that this is the same experience Path’s users have come to expect on other platforms: complete control over what you share and who you share it with. Best of all, it’s ad-free.

Update at 12:05PM EST: Path has now posted an official announcement regarding the beta launch, noting that “Windows Phone 8 has been our most requested platform.” It also noted the app was built in collaboration with a joint team from Nokia and Microsoft.

The beta app has the following features:

• Your personal life – Journal your thoughts, your sleep, and your check-ins.
• Beautiful sharing – Capture photos and videos, and apply some of the best filters and editing tools to your photos.
• Feel the love – Friends and family can react with smiles, laughs, gasps, loves, comments and more.
• Cross-posting – Be everywhere you want to be by posting any Path moment to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Foursquare.
• Private Sharing – Choose to share any Path moment privately with one or more friends.
• Create an Inner Circle by selecting a group of friends to easily share moments with. Filter your feed to see only moments from your Inner Circle. And change your settings to only receive notifications from your Inner Circle.

We can thus expect that the first stable release will include at least the above. Path says future versions of the app will include media moments (movies, books & music), the Shop, and Messaging.

The fact Path was coming to Windows Phone was first confirmed back in July. The announcement was made during the Lumia 1020 event in New York, where Vine, Flipboard, and Hipstamatic all revealed they were doing the same.

Vine and Hipstamatic have since arrived (not to mention Instagram), but Flipboard is still on its way, and now Path is halfway there. Until now, Path has only been available as a private beta.

Unfortunately, there’s still no news regarding when Path plans to have a stable release ready for Windows Phone. We’ve contacted the company and will update this post if we learn more.

See also – Path for Android now lets you share moments to WordPress blogs and Path goes Pro: Introduces $14.99 premium subscription plan and new privacy controls to share moments