Microsoft wants to offer a more innovative computing experience by adding new features to Windows 10 Live Tiles.
The company has a couple of surprises in store for the highly recognizable Live Tiles and it will unveil the changes at its upcoming Build 2016 developer conference.
Microsoft now shares a few details on what users can expect, teasing a special session titled "What's New for Tiles and Toast Notifications" on its Channel 9 page.
"Notifications are an essential tool for engaging with your customers on Windows," notes Microsoft's Channel 9. "We are building on the foundation of Action Center to give developers greatly increased flexibility in Adaptive Toasts."
Other details mentioned include the company's introduction of a powerful API and the evolving features of Live Tiles, which will be designed with a pair of "highly requested surprises you don't want to miss."
While there is no further indication on what Microsoft actually means when it touts those "highly requested surprises," it should be noted that the company has long been working on finding ways to enhance the Live Tiles experience.
"You're already an expert with the familiar Start menu, task bar, and desktop," says Microsoft. "Live tiles provide streaming updates of what matters most, instantly."
Back in 2014, it was a while since Microsoft released Windows Phone 8.1, news surfaced that the company was looking into the possibility of adding a "hover" gesture feature to Live Tiles. The new implementation was said to be part of the company's unofficially announced phone project, an advanced flagship with the codename "McLaren."
The device reportedly had a "Mixview" user interface at some point, which featured so-called "exploding Live Tiles." Although Microsoft obviously didn't mean to literally "explode" the Live Tiles, what the term actually meant was that the tiles, when tapped at a corner, would "burst open" to reveal a subgroup of tiles that enabled quick user access to shortcuts and regular tasks.
Another feature that may be added is the "interactive tile view," which allows users to respond and interact with notifications from within apps in an easier way. One example of how it works is seen when the user needs to reply to an email. Instead of tapping on a tile to send a reply, users will be allowed to reply inline by scrolling through their messages that are found within the Tile.
It remains to be seen just what surprises Microsoft has in store for Live Tiles, but its Build 2016 developer conference is just around the corner so we'll find out soon enough.
