Of course, you can drag these shortcuts around and onto other homescreens or into other folders, as needed. A green arrow denotes an app that isn't installed yet - tap it to download it in the Play Store. Perfectly fine too, many people prefer Bing to Google here (right) The Microsoft folder kicks things off for you with most of Microsoft's applications and services. The search box brings up results from Bing, and in the Edge browser, as you'd expect. Nothing too remarkable, though the use of the Bing Spotlight images each day do help keep things fresh and attractive (right) the dock can be swiped upwards to reveal a second row of shortcuts, plus more to system/device functions. Your Launcher front end, a fairly traditional mix of weather/time summary, application shortcuts and folder, search box, and dock, with application tray. Launcher 5.0 adds an extra layer of customisation and compatibility with Windows 10 on the desktop/Surface/etc. I should preface this illustrated review by saying that I've extensive knowledge of other Android 'launchers', so I'm weighing up the pros and cons below against the Pixel Launcher, Nova Launcher, Emotion UI, and so on.Īt the end of the day, Microsoft Launcher is exactly what it sounds - it doesn't turn Android into Windows Phone, but it provides enough UI elements and aids enough Microsoft services and applications that you'll at least feel more at home if you're coming from (e.g.) a Lumia. Microsoft Launcher has been covered here before in passing, but it hit the big 5.0 in the last week and it's time to assess it properly. It's not often that we review applications that don't run on Windows Phone or Windows 10 Mobile, but Microsoft Launcher for Android is significant as it may well provide an easy-ish bridge between a Windows phone and Microsoft applications and services while moving the phone itself to Android.

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