If there is a flagship app from Microsoft on Android, outside of the Office 365 apps, it is Microsoft Launcher. The launcher has proven to be very successful for the Redmond company, especially for those who are tied closely to the Microsoft ecosystem of other apps. Now the company is rolling out an update to Launcher that brings more enterprise ties and other creature comforts to let you customize things more in it.
The update is version 4.5 for those keeping score at home and is rolling out now in the Google Play Store. From an enterprise perspective, if you work for a company that leverages Microsoft Intune for data protection policies, you can now configure Microsoft Launcher to view that corporate data. While you have always been able to add a corporate Office 365 account to the launcher, this new addition will give users with more strict data protection policies to leverage it on their phones.
On the Calendar Card on the Utility page of Microsoft Launcher, you can now let attendees to a meeting know that you are running late directly from the card. For those of you who are running Android Oreo, app shortcuts are now supported in the launcher and, if you are running Nougat (7.0) or higher, you can set both the home and lock screen wallpapers from within the launcher now. Previously you had to go to the wallpaper app on your phone to do this as Microsoft Launcher would only change the home screen wallpaper.
Other refinements include recurring reminders now being supported and the ability to adjust the icon size in the app drawer, dock and home screen.
Microsoft Launcher is free in the Google Play Store for those that want to give it a try. If you have it installed, expect the OTA update to the new version 4.5 build over the next few days.
