Microsoft Launcher

Microsoft Corporation

About this app

Microsoft Launcher provides a new home screen experience that empowers you to be more productive on your Android device. Microsoft Launcher is highly customisable, allowing you to organise everything on your phone. Your personalised feed makes it easy to view your calendar, to do lists, and more. Sticky Notes on the go. When you set up Microsoft Launcher as your new home screen, you can either start fresh with your favourite apps or import your current home screen layout. Need to switch back to your previous home screen? You can do that, too!

This version of Microsoft Launcher has been rebuilt on a new codebase to make new features possible, including dark mode, personalised news, and numerous performance improvements (improved load time, less memory use, better battery performance, and fluent animation).

MICROSOFT LAUNCHER FEATURES

Personalised news:
· Stay informed with a personalised news reading experience that is consistent across all your devices.

Customisable icons:
· Give your phone a consistent look and feel with custom icon packs and adaptive icons.

Beautiful wallpapers:
· Enjoy a fresh new image from Bing every day or choose your own photos.

Dark theme:
· Comfortably use your phone at night or in low light environments with Microsoft Launcher’s new dark theme. This feature is compatible with Android’s dark mode settings.

Improved performance:
· Microsoft Launcher now loads faster, uses less memory, is more battery efficient, and offers fluent animations.

Landscape mode:
· Microsoft Launcher supports vertical and horizontal orientations to enhance your viewing preference.

Microsoft Launcher asks for the following optional permissions:

· Microphone: Used for speech-to-text functionality for Launcher features, such as Bing Search, Bing Chat, To Do, and Sticky Notes.

· Photo and video: Used for getting features, such as your wallpaper, Blur Effect, and Bing Chat Visual Search, and to show recent activities and backups. On Android 13 and higher, these permissions are replaced with the ‘All file’ access permissions.

· Notifications: Needed to notify you of any update or app activity.

· Contacts: Used for searching contacts on Bing Search.

· Location: Used for the Weather widget.

· Phone: Allows you to call your contacts with a swipe in Launcher.

· Camera: Used to create image notes for the Sticky Notes card and to search for images in Bing Search.

· Calendar: Used to show calendar info for the Calendar card in your Launcher feed.

You can still use Microsoft Launcher even if you do not consent to these permissions, but some functions may be restricted.

TERM OF USE
By installing this app, you agree to the Terms of Use (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=246338) and Privacy Policy (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=248686).

Downloading Microsoft Launcher gives the option to replace the default launcher or to toggle between device launchers. Microsoft Launcher does not replicate the user’s PC home screen on the Android phone. Users must still purchase and/or download any new apps from Google Play. Requires Android 7.0+.

Ratings and reviews

This app was my favorite thing about my phone until this new update. Now it doesn't look as clean and crisp, everything is bunched together visually, tons of features were removed: functions in the dock, disabling animations for speed, restarting the launcher which I frequently did to fix little bugs, choosing the number of rows in the app drawer, swipe up to see apps then swipe up again to close the drawer, make full page widgets on the home screen, etc. Not excited to look for a new launcher.

Great app. I switched from Nova because it's smoother. There are a few things that i don't like though. 1. Apps disappear from search results sometimes. I have to wait a moment for them to show up again. 2. I wish I can click search button to open the App, just like in Nova launcher. 3. I often mis-scroll in feed. I put gmail widget in feed. When i put my finger on top of the emails themselves, sometimes I scroll down to the next email and sometimes down the page.

So far a great app. My only reservation from giving a 5 star review is occasionally it fails to recreate the home screen when returning from an open app. It will only display the wallpaper. As I said this is a random occasional thing. It would not stop me from using it on my primary personal phone. July 8 2024: Stuck with launcher and now I love it. Any time you change something as personal as your phone it feels weird at first. Everything is just second nature now.

What's new

Copilot in Your Feed
We’re thrilled to enhance your Microsoft Launcher experience with the integration of Copilot right into your feed. This update brings your everyday AI companion closer to you:
- Effortless Access: Copilot is now just a swipe away, ready to assist you with answers and content creation.
- Creative Power: Generate images and text directly from your mobile feed using simple words.
- Pro Performance: For our Copilot Pro users, enjoy a more responsive and swift interaction.