Windows Phone 8.1 GDR2 (next update)

The official documentation of Windows Phone 8.1 GDR2 (which was said to be skipped) has now shown up for the OS update on Microsoft’s Windows Phone OEM dev centre.

A variety of new features appear to be supported, but nothing ground breaking.  New is Video over LTE, support for additional languages including Bangla (Bangladesh), Khmer, Kiswahili and Lao, a new anti-theft policy, and a variety of other features which can be seen below.

Microsoft has been promising am anti-theft feature to rival that of iOS and Android by the middle of 2015, suggesting we will see devices running the new update well before then.

Software changes

Customization and runtime configuration changes

These customization and runtime configuration changes are new for Windows Phone 8.1 GDR2.

New or updated feature	Description
Video over LTE	Customize specific settings and behavior for Video over LTE to meet mobile operator requirements including: Showing or hiding the LTE video calling switch Setting the default value for the switch Customizing the name/label of the switch and the description Specifying the timeout, in milliseconds, for the phone to remain in video transition state Enabling video conferencing Specifying the amount of time before a video call is downgraded to a voice call due to low video quality Hiding the video charges dialog that is displayed when the user turns on the LTE video calling switch
Restore Start tile layout	Append the OEM-defined Start screen layout to the bottom of the user's backed up Start screen layout when the user restores their device from a backup.
More phone languages	Include support for these additional phone languages: Bangla (Bangladesh) Khmer Kiswahili Lao
Remove the trailing MSISDN digits on a SIM card	Use to remove the trailing MSISDN digits that are appended to the service provider name (SPN) in the phone UI.
Use voice domain for emergency call branding	Use to enable the voice domain to decide whether to useEmergency calls only or No service in the phone UI branding.
SimbldIccidTable.xml	Create a SimbldIccidTable.xml to allow certain SIMs to disable one or more languages. For more information, see the Use SIMBLD to disable languages per ICCID section in Variant selection during runtime.
Key handling and ProvXML ordering improvements	For more information, see the Selecting the variant section inVariant selection during runtime.

Provisioning and device management updates

These provisioning and device management features are new for Windows Phone 8.1 GDR2.

New or updated feature	Description
PolicyManager configuration service provider	Added the following new policies: Connectivity/AllowManualVPNConfiguration Connectivity/CellularAppDownloadMBLimit Connectivity/WLANScanMode Experiences/AllowTaskSwitcher Security/AntiTheftMode DataProtection/RequireProtectionUnderLockConfig DataProtection/EnterpriseProtectedDomainNames
VPN configuration service provider	Changes: New AlwaysOn value in ConnectionType. New Policies/AppIdleTimeout setting in the CSP.

Manufacturing changes

These manufacturing changes are new for Windows Phone 8.1 GDR2.

New or updated feature	Description
MMOS image definition	You can enable TShell in MMOS.

Testing changes

These software tracing changes are new for Windows Phone 8.1 GDR2.

New or updated feature	Description
Use Field Medic from a command prompt	New parameters were added to FieldMedicHelper.
LBS test API	New location-based services (LBS) test library API.
Gathering custom Qualcomm modem logs with Field Medic	Use to add custom modem logging profiles to Field Medic.
SSM firewall plug-in for Qualcomm modem logging in Field Medic	Use to create an SSM firewall plug-in for Qualcomm modem logging.