According to a post on The Verge, Google Sync, which Google announced last month would be no longer available for new Windows Phones beginning January 30th (today), is backing off on that pronouncement and has extended EAS (Exchange Active Sync) support in Google Sync until July 31st:

In a statement issued to us (The Verge), a spokesperson says the company will “start rolling out this change as planned across all platforms but will continue to support Google Sync for Windows Phone until July 31, 2013.”

Microsoft expresses “surprise” at the Google announcement to end support for EAS in an Outlook Blog post on December 17th, shortly Google announced they were pulling the plug, but Microsoft is working on supporting CardDAV and CalDAV, Google’s now preferred method of syncing contacts and calendars. As The Verge notes, Microsoft had requested an extension on the decision to end Google Sync support:

The change of heart follows Microsoft’s requests for Google to extend its Exchange ActiveSync support for six months. It appears that Google has honored Microsoft’s requests, allowing Windows Phone users to continue using Google Sync until July 31st. According to our own sources, Microsoft is preparing an update for Windows Phone to support CardDav and CalDAV protocols.

It’s still unclear what the decision will mean for Windows 8 users, or what this whole mess has done to the by now long overdue Outlook.com Calendar update, which hasn’t been revised since Microsoft introduced Outlook.com as a successor to Hotmail last July.