Microsoft Start Reviews

Over a year ago, my biggest complaint was the repetitive Twitter, and Facebook inclusions that were already in the article.

Now we get the same strange repetitions within the article, plus we get more links to things that appear to be an article, but it’s just a click bait ad, I can no longer highlight a word and search the definition, and I can no longer select a picture in an article and zoom in. The video articles I am most interested in, get stuck in a constant buffer but not the one I really don’t care about…those ones load just fine. I no longer get local news for my area, so I have to go back to doing a web search for local news, because MicrosoftStart only picks up neighboring city news. The closest city that I can get news for is 20 miles to the city limit but really the city is more like 40 miles away. I have setup the local news and areas of interest, but it just says “Sorry! No news for this area”
Back to using google news now, which is only slightly better. Go back a few updates and you will win me back Microsoft.

Is this a news app? A browser? A weather app? A grocery delivery app? Microsoft just couldn’t quite figure out it’s use case. The dramatic navigational and UI inconsistencies seem to echo this confusion. Some pages have a back button, others don’t. Some pages are native slideovers that you dismiss by swiping. Other pages are websites wrapped in native controls whose tab has to be closed. Sometimes you can swipe backwards to go back and sometimes you can’t. There is a user profile settings page and then another settings page nested within it. Searching just brings up the web bing search results instead of a desired news article. The bottom navbar‘s buttons are identically weighted making it unclear which one is the “front page” of MicrosoftStart . Then there are the functional bugs. For example, progressive pages sometimes fail to load when you pull up for more content (games, looking at you). All in all, I find MicrosoftStart confusing and a bit aimless. It’s got the kitchen sink of features but none of them are implemented all that well.

The major redesign that just occurred that added a bunch of unnecessary stuff like a Bing search bar that Microsoft would like us to use made me search out a replacement. My recommendation is to go to the MSN website, navigate to the “News Headlines” page (which is what the old version of MicrosoftStart basically was) click the share button and then select “Add Website to Home Screen”. It turns out that it doesn’t merely add a bookmark icon to your screen that then pops up in Safari. MSN and some other websites (including APnews) when added to the homescreen like this actually become a HTML Web App. It’s still The Safari engine running it but it opens in its own window and has a custom full screen app like interface. It’s not quite as nice to use as the old app but it’s usable and doesn’t include all the nonsense that was added to the new version. Also less ads. The icon looks perfect right it the spot where MicrosoftStart icon was so you don’t even have to rearrange your Home Screen.

This was my top choice for a news app not that long ago. I relied on it all through 2020, which, you know, was kind of a newsy year.

But a few months back they updated MicrosoftStart to include things like user comments on articles, and social media reaction “features” that allow you to 👍 or ❤️ articles.

So now each article, let’s say reporting on something tragic, will have hearts and emoticons and a toxic comments section below it, things that don’t belong in a news app, and frankly, don’t look good next to an article about death or disease or war.

And all the standard internet comment section junk has reared its head: obvious trolls, even more obvious bad actors, arguments over nothing, and constant “Biden libtard” this and “Trump nazi” that between commenters that have absolutely *no* idea what’s going on around them.

Use a different news app. There are a bunch. There were features only this one had, and it *was* the best once. But we never needed Facebook style features in MicrosoftStart , and a quick review of recent history should have let Microsoft know adding these kinds of features does not improve the user experience, but creates a hostile environment rife with abuse and garbage.

Microsoft News is fantastic for news. But MicrosoftStart never save settings about news preferences and even when you set them again, the categorization of articles is often poor.
For example, I cannot find any possible way to permanently disable news about sports, entertainment and especially royals. When I finally do disable these (until the next time MicrosoftStart starts), MicrosoftStart saves that I’m logged in, but ignore my preferences. An because of poor categorization, things like sports, entertainment and royals ends up jammed under trending or possibly Asia or Africa. The result is, at least one in 3 articles I’m presented are tabloid rubbish. I can’t imagine that MS would need more than one person on duty at a time to properly sort and filter articles.

I read this every day but...it has issues. Sometimes you click on a story only for another story - the wrong story to appear. They will talk about a video but won’t include the link for it - which is rather annoying. If you click on the picture for the story it will sometimes include other random pictures. The “Good news” isn’t updated often enough - really? It’s that hard to find good things to report? And sometimes the “good news” is depressing. It’s just ok but better than most of the other stuff.

MicrosoftStart works very well. I really liked the Apple News app, (in the beginning), but then there became too many articles that where behind a paywall, which was a waste of my time. Plus, it was inconsistent where it would open and load all stories quickly and then open very slowly the next time. Microsoft’s news app has been very consistent at opening fast, very interesting stories/articles, and a well laid out UI. Big fan so far! Keep up the great work Microsoft!!

The updated newspage is messy and hard to read. The story tiles are arranged in in two randomly staggered columns, which results in a confusing jumble to the eyes. You can’t scan the articles left to right because the headlines don’t line up, and you can’t scan the columns top to bottom, because there is no bottom of the page. This is beyond annoying. Whoever designed it need to go back to Layout 101. Please line up the story tiles left to right to make the page readable again!

The content is what it is. This isn’t so important to me because I seek news from multiple sources. But it has to be easily readable or it’s a no-go.

I’ve had MicrosoftStart since my days of using a Nokia Lumia 1020. Been through a ton of updates. I recommend MicrosoftStart to everyone. Going forward I can’t. I’m not a fan of the new layout at all with the last update. To me it seems just a giant mess. And it made finding news articles even harder to find. I’m here for the news, why do I need to see groceries and everything else. Stop trying to be like apple news. Not everything apple dose is a good thing. As I type this review on an IPhone. I now the irony. I’ll keep MicrosoftStart around play around more with it. Hopefully get use to it. I won’t be recommending it to anyone for awhile. Was one of the best news apps out there and now just like everyone else’s. And not good at it.

I can be walking in the kitchen or in the yard still enjoying listening to the personalized newest content.I hope I can use a voice command to select the news or jump around this must be a totally hands-free discipline the mobile working from home or multitasking while consuming personalized news. The most impressive part is AI voice quality is unmatched anywhere! A great job by Microsoft AI!!!

I am so, so upset about this radical redesign that MSN just did. I have three or four news apps that I check in with a few times a week, but this was MicrosoftStart that I would spend time on nearly twice a day. I loved its simplistic, clear-cut layout. This layout made it stand out from all other news apps. Now it’s ruined because of Microsoft who only took over because its its greedy, never-satisfied, and has a constant Need to monopolize wherever it can. I’m so saddened by this. I did not realize that my innocently pressing “update” would cause this to happen. I’m going to try to give it a chance, but something tells me I’ll be forced to delete it in a week. I can’t believe that Microsoft took over and ruined what used to be one of my favorite apps.

I mainly use it for news as I don’t like Google news trying to view everything in its own browser. This one will take me to the actual site when I click on anything on the news article. However, it never refreshes on the “For You” tab. I click on refresh but it still won’t. I have to click on a different tab, and come back to “For You” tab to refresh. Other tabs are a hit or miss for refreshing. Sometimes they do and sometimes I have to do the same thing for them too.
So basically, I am back to using Google News again.

MicrosoftStart has changed dramatically since i first downloaded it and now they dont even care what type of news you are looking at. For instance, under the sports headlines today I saw a headline titled, "LA reaches settlement over alleged at-home Covid 19 test kits".. not too sure what that had to do with sports, that is not the only example of this, there was also "Depressed demand forcing Wisconsin dairy farmers to dump milk", again nothing to do with sports. Additionally, whoever developed MicrosoftStart thought it would be a great idea to have NO end to the headlines under each section, so if you think you are going to get the bottom of page it just keeps loading more headlines whether they are relevant or not. MicrosoftStart has gone down the tubes, its absolute trash now.

Update: apparently the developers don't read the reviews. This thing has gotten worse. Open MicrosoftStart , swipe through two or three articles and CRASH! C'mon, folks! Do better!

My complaint before was that each time MicrosoftStart loses focus and then is brought back to the foreground, it resets itself. This means that you have to scroll through all of the stories to find where you were; assuming you remember. Now, when I try to share something via Twitter or Facebook (on my iPad Air), the pop up window loses focus while I'm typing and I have to start over again.

Definitely going to look for a replacement now. MicrosoftStart owners apparently don't care and definitely don't test their product.

What a shady, dishonest update. What was once an application focused on actually displaying news is now a sneaky way to trick people into using Bing. How so? When you load the application, you’re given a nearly identical experience as the Edge browser’s start page. There’s a search box, but if you think you’re searching for news topics, you’re wrong - it’s Bing. Looking for news? Sure, there’s a few headlines on that Edge start page, but the functionally you would expect to find and was central in previous versions is now buried in the third tab. It’s this sort of anti-user practice that build a generation of folks who lack faith in anything from Microsoft.

Reading article and all of a sudden it disappeared. Couldn’t get it back or at times not even find the article. I’ve also flagged articles that I wanted to follow, and never see them again. And yes, I know the difference between follow and delete. If this was a one time issue I could accept it, but it’s not just one time. It’s been multiple times and over a variety of topics. If it can be posted IT SHOULD NOT DISAPPEAR. Or is that just good old CENSORSHIP and CORRUPTION or someone decided it was not that much of an article. OH SNAP — isn’t that the same thing?

Unlike many of Microsoft's other apps, this one is much better on Windows Mobile and full Windows 10 than it is on iOS.

Microsoft's News app on iOS is quite clunky and outdated when compared to similar news apps. It jumps into a different window just to show a picture, unlike their own Windows platform app which overlays the image. Navigation is difficult, with the back button way in the top corner and access to my "interest" topics buried in a top menu, instead of laid out with the other "main" topics.

One last thing that I find quite confusing in MicrosoftStart - the lack of any useful settings. There is really only a way to sign into an account, and pick a language. That's about it. What about options for video playback? What about text sizes?! What about easier ways to choose and navigate content and interests? What about a dark theme choice!?

For Microsoft's "dump windows and build on other platforms" mobile strategy, this sure falls flat. It's a terrible experience.

Really do not want to see like or dislike options. Not interested in opinions. News is news and is meant to inform. It seems as if you added this feature as a point of entertainment for people. I think that’s sad and essentially adds fuel to the fire in regards to some stories since the opinions written are not informed at all. And many will view some opinions as fact. I think that sets dangerous precedent as we all have come to see over the last couple of years. There better formats for expressing opinions.

As far as the layout goes I really preferred it the way it was.

Should now be called MSN Entertainment. I will seek out other sources of news.

I’ve used Microsoft news before, but uninstalled due to not having features I find important, especially the widget. Now it’s there and I’m happy as can be with Microsoft News, BUT there is one feature that is lacking; Custom news notifications. I want to be notified when other topics I follow have new stories. My Notification Center and widget are loaded with political stories, but not with what’s important to me too, which doesn’t make sense. Thanks Microsoft News for making a reliable app that I can count on!

I haven’t experienced any crashes yet as others have. I use this on an iPhone 6 and iPhone 7 Plus.

I haven’t watched or read the news for many years since it’s mostly negative and all politics is garbage. I own this for one reason.

‘GOOD NEWS’. It’s about time someone did something like this. I can now skip all the negative bull**** and go straight to the stuff that doesn’t try to pull me down. Then I can skip right over to technology and be done. Super easy.

Title says it all. There’s too much clickbait for this to be a serious news app, and the news that isn’t clickbait is horribly curated by MSN. Google’s offerings somehow know exactly what articles I’d be interested in, and yet, although I’ve already fed Cortana and Bing a bunch of keywords for my interests and specified what topics to display, they still manage to come up with irrelevant articles.
That being said, it does fit with the theme of fluent design, which I’m a fan of, and it is free, so the price is right. I just wish it was actually better at being a news app, and not another advertising hub.
(That being said, it’s horrifying that Google has scraped so much info into my advertising ID, but this is a case where it’s actually kinda convenient, so, this is alright I guess.)

There's promise. I'd love to see more interests to choose from, many more sources and quicker additions of new news.
I'd say the look and feel is a tiny bit sloppy next to hyper-polished Apple News, it's not bad at all but it is a lesser app imho. Font size, pic to headline ratio... it could be better.
I'll use it tho... and then use the Reuters and Apple app until I feel this one provides everything. Or I'll drop it again like the last "effort". Man that got bad!
Here's hoping MS actually allows the devs to make MicrosoftStart better quickly and effectively unlike so many other MS mobile programs. As someone who desperately misses live tiles I don't appreciate MS just giving up so many times.

Thanks for the 6/6 update. Golf news still showing 2 week old news.

Update: missing topics are back, but updates are sporadic. Golf hasn’t updated since before the Women’s US Open started. When I click on a Federer article in Tennis, I get a Pliskova article. Can't re-sort order of favorites anymore. A 5-star app is now trash.

I used MicrosoftStart for awhile on my iPad and it was great! It stopped updating last week so I uninstalled it and reinstalled. Now Science news is no longer available. That was my favorite section. And My News includes news that I did not select. Sadly another app that has lost functionality on update. I guess I have to find another news app.

The MSN news app is easy to navigate through to find the stories that I really am interested in. I have found MSN to be very objective in their news reports. When a mistake has been made the editorial staff will print a retraction/correction with an apology to their readers. The only issue I have is the color of MicrosoftStart tends to blend into the background of my home screen. I would appreciate a change to the color and design to work with a darker background like I have.

The options to share an article are too limited. Sharing via email provides the MSN URL shortcut, which is almost as annoying as AMP links in Google News. There are no options to open the article in a web browser. To locate the URL of the original site, sometimes I need to enter the title of the article into a search engine. The most annoying issue is when sharing an article via text, the prompt requesting I write a review prevents me from selecting a contact and also will not let me respond to their request. I have no graceful way to proceed and must close MicrosoftStart and then relaunch it.

MicrosoftStart is a better source than iOS native news app. It provides more news and is categorized so you can find news without aimless scrolling or tapping. Rather than sending you to different pages for the articles and being nagged for subscriptions, it serves up the article by itself. Love the opinion section because it is varied and has a great cartoon section.

The interface and aesthetics of MicrosoftStart are phenomenal, however, I wish that Microsoft gave us the ability to choose who we actually follow on the web.

Set aside any feelings you have about politics/etc., and just focus on what would make MicrosoftStart better for the end user. I personally don’t align with any political party, but can tell when developers favour certain news organisations over others. I wish Microsoft would allow me to choose whoever and not choose whoever I want in regards to subscribing when using MicrosoftStart . I like to follow certain websites when scouring the web for news and MicrosoftStart doesn’t allow me any customisation whatsoever on that front. Until this happens, I will keep this uninstalled from my device.

5/5 app interface
0/5 customisation
2.4/5 overall review
+0.5/5 because Apple doesn’t do half stars

Thanks for listening!