Microsoft has released a major new version of its Launcher for Android that supports Dark mode, landscape orientation, and much more. The release was hinted at by a recent deprecation of the preview version of the Launcher, and is thought to include some UX that will appear soon in the Surface Duo as well.
There’s no official announcement, but this horribly-written Microsoft post notes that the Launcher 6 is based on a new codebase that enables some of its new features, including a new personalized news feed, landscape orientation support, customizable application icons, Bing-based wallpaper, and Dark Theme support. It also includes performance improvements “like speed to load, low memory utilization, battery optimization[,] and fluent animations.” I told you it was horribly written. That doesn’t even make sense.
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There’s also a new app icon. I know, amazing.
Microsoft Launcher requires Android 7.0 or higher, but you may have issues with Android 10 navigation gestures on some phone models, the firm notes.
You can download Microsoft Launcher 6 from the Google Play Store.
blue77star
<p>Microsoft should make their own Android Phone with removed Google stuff.</p>
dftf
<blockquote><em><a href="#554573">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>Why not?</p><p><br></p><p>Lots of enterprise customers use Office365 and having a phone come with all the essential apps pre-installed, such as Outlook, OneDrive, Skype for Business (or Teams, eventually), Company Portal (formerly InTune), Excel, Word, PowerPoint, OneNote, Sway, Yammer, etc., could be nice-to-have.</p><p><br></p><p>And given many corporate/enterprise customers block access to the Play Store and distribute updates via their chosen MDM solution (such as InTune or Airwatch), then Microsoft could offer a custom-storefront, similar to what "Software Center" does for Windows via SCCM.</p><p><br></p><p>Sure, in-terms-of general-public there is no reason to, but for business there could be.</p>
dftf
<p>I still fail to understand why, if they were going to bother to create their own launcher, not make it look-like the Windows Phone UI, with Tiles?</p><p><br></p><p>Unless you are really integrated into Microsoft's services, what does this "me-too" effort do any-better than market-leaders like Nova Launcher?</p>