The live tiles and their design have become a sort of iconic feature of Windows, and Microsoft as a whole, in recent years. Their "information at a glance" functionality can be quite useful to users. But one feature that has so far been missing. is the ability to interact with the app through the tile, just like through a widget.
This feature was rumored for a long time in different incarnations, both as a widget-type control and as the 3D live tile which was supposed to end up on Windows Phone but got canceled. But we knew Microsoft was still working on some version of interactive live tiles.
Many were hoping the company would unveil this at Build, but instead of a grand reveal all we got was a quick mention in a secondary conference one week later, at Ignite. Still this confirmed that Microsoft was indeed still working on interactive tiles and that the feature will be launching with one of Windows 10"s subsequent updates. Whether that"s Redstone in 2016, or an early fall update that"s expected after launch, remains to be seen, but interactive tiles are definitely on their way.
But how exactly will these tiles look and work? We apparently have already seen them in action, quite a while ago, when the Microsoft Research video embedded above was posted online. Of course, this was an early iteration of the feature and by the time interactive tiles actually show up on our devices they might work and look a bit differently. But the video still gives you a good sense of what to expect.
Couple this with more advanced features and APIs coming with Windows 10 and the future Start Screen looks very interesting. But we"d like to know what you think? Is this to your taste or were you expecting something completely different? Would something like music controls suffice or should Microsoft build much more advanced functionality? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: Channel 9 via: WindowsCentral