Microsoft today announced Microsoft Start, a rebrand of its MSN News and Microsoft News services, unifying the offerings under a single brand. This new name will replace the existing Microsoft News and MSN News names across the areas that it is present in, such as in the Edge browser, and more.
Microsoft Start can be accessed from Edge and Chrome at the MicrosoftStart.com website, on mobile via native Android and iOS apps, and on Windows 10 and Windows 11 through the News and Interests column and news widgets, respectively. The service is also what powers the new tab page content in Microsoft Edge. Considering that the branding change has just begun rolling out, the Play Store listing is yet to be updated, and those running the Microsoft News app will receive an update that brings the branding change, which is the case with both Android and iOS versions.
As for the service itself, there is not much that is new in the way of features. Just like the current experience, news articles are curated for users and adapt based on preferences. The firm says that it curates articles from “over a thousand global premium publishing brands” which are tailored to users" interests through both AI algorithms and moderators. For those that want to personalize their feed manually, the firm allows them to select topics of interest through the Personalize option.
In addition to news items, Start will also provide users with cards relating to weather, finance, sports, navigation information, and more, just like before. Unsurprisingly, preferences set by the user on the desktop sync with the mobile apps connected to the same Microsoft account.
While Microsoft Start is currently just a branding change, it will be interesting to see if there are any new features and/or capabilities added to the service.