Interactive Live Tiles for Windows are in the works at Microsoft – see them in action

The “one experience” thrust that Microsoft is leading will make Live Tiles more than just a pretty face. Love them or hate them, Live Tiles are here to stay, and even with the revisions that Microsoft has made to Windows 8.1 for desktop users, the Live Tiles will have a presence even in the upcoming new start menu.

Like the widgets we find for Android devices, Live Tiles are the keystone to Microsoft’s strategy to unify the experience between smartphones, tablets and PCs.

Build 2014 showed us much of the progress being made, but based on these videos from Microsoft Research in Asia, we have a lot more to look forward to.  As they exist now, Live Tiles provide real-time content, but they are not interactive. They provide information to the user without the need to open the app, but the notifications are not actionable. Microsoft is working on some pretty neat enhancements to Live Tiles, and how they integrate to Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox.

Live Tiles will begin to have interactive shortcuts that allow almost instantaneous action without the need to dig into an app. Whether it is a modern app, or desktop application, the two environments will be even more interactive, and the Live Tiles will become more like dashboards.

Seeing the video demonstrations below, you can see some elements of the Windows Phone experience working its way up through the tablet and PC experience. The multitasking and integration will bring a number of enhancements as well.

While we have no indication if these features are set to arrive in the form of an update, or if it will be implemented as part of Windows 9 or Windows Phone 9.  The environment is being referred to as "Windows Next," which is a common practice to coin the next version of the OS in general.  We would not mind seeing these features arrive sooner rather than later.


source: WindowsBlogItalia (YouTube) via Microsoft News