'Belize' is Microsoft's upcoming cross-platform service that plans to transform how people tell their stories

More than 8 months ago, we reported about an upcoming service from Microsoft which plans to change how people tell their stories or share photos and videos. The service was initially revealed by a report from ZDNet.

And now, it seems like the service will be called “Belize” and it will be a cross-platform service with apps for Android and iOS. As for Windows 10 devices, the feature will likely be integrated into the Microsoft Photos app which comes pre-installed with Windows 10, but Microsoft may end up releasing a separate UWP app for Belize.

This information actually comes from some files of the Microsoft Photos app in Windows 10 — there are a couple of files for Belize, including the logo itself (which you can see above), and a handful of intro music which will likely be used for videos made with Belize. Additionally, there’s also a couple of images with QR codes which link to HockeyApp for the official Android, iOS, and Windows 10 apps — but these links are private at the moment.

As we previously reported, Belize is being built by Microsoft’s Evoke Studio (along with its OneDrive and MSR teams) which is under the company’s Windows Apps Studio team. Evoke studio also published a couple of vacancies earlier this year for its new service, which gave us a pretty clear idea about the service:

We’re building a service to complement our Evoke client applications. This new service will run revolutionary computer vision and machine learning algorithms over billions of digital assets to create a new realm of possibilities, and transform how people tell their stories and preserve their memories through photos and videos. The collection and subsequent high scale analysis of digital assets enables us to derive information that enables a much richer, more personalized digital memory experience for our users.

Belize seems like a very interesting service from Microsoft which may just change how you share photos and videos in Windows 10. We’ll have to wait and see how this service actually looks and works when the service is officially released — so keep an eye on MSPU for more on Belize in the near future.

Thanks to our reader Vitor M. for the tip!