Deal of the Day

Microsoft's MSN suite of apps are now available on Android

Applications
By Rich Edmonds | Dec 11 2014 | 6:34 am  | 39 Comments

MSN suite on Android

Microsoft has today launched newly rebranded mobile apps for Android and iOS. The company overhauled the MSN portal a few months ago, refreshing apps available on its Windows Phone platform. Rebranded apps include MSN News, Weather, Sports, Health & Fitness, Food & Drink and Money, most of which are available to download for Android hardware.

The apps also sport synchronization across platforms, making it possible to pick up from where you left off on a Windows Phone or Android smartphone. Microsoft has upped its software offering on competitor platforms in recent months, offering consumers on other platforms the opportunity to utilize available services.

The above suite of apps will also work on Amazon hardware running Android.

Rich Edmonds

Rich Edmonds

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Reader comments

Microsoft's MSN suite of apps are now available on Android

39 Comments
dby2011

LOL Thanks for making it so much easier to switch from WP to Android Microsoft. I now have all my MSN apps, Xbox apps, Mobile Office and HERE maps (thanks Nokia). Why should you buy a Windows Phone again?

Posted via the Android Central App

zizu101

I think Microsoft wants the people to move away from their phones for some reason.

Posted via Android Central App

DJCBS

I think they know Windows Phone has no future without Nokia lol

Posted via the Android Central App

Mr_Bill

No, they are doing the right thing, They are following the money as a business should, focusing on the most popular platforms. They waited years for windows phone without releasing other platforms apps and it didn't help WP.

musikHersteller

Yep, this right here. And it's a tech consumer's dream to have these things all work on multiple platforms.

Remember when Google stuff worked on Windows Mobile? Pepperridge Farm remembers...

Posted via the Android Central App

Just_Some_Nobody

MS is still primarily a software company. While, I'm sure they would love to justify the purchase of Nokia mobile by selling lots of phones, the most important thing is for them to get people to continue to use their software. If they have to start making more of that available on other platforms, then they seem more than willing to do that.

Newneotoo

I think you're missing the point, windows has always been cross platform,. Microsoft is doing the right thing here, they are getting their product onto as many devices as possible... You would buy a windows phone becuase it's a choice and it is a different beast to Android or IOS... But coming from windows phone myself having these apps available makes it easier for me.. to transfer my stuff and possibly go back in the future... This is a good thing and it's how Google and Apple should be behaving. Not in the way they have been.

Since9600

MSN is number #32 in world ranking and Bing is # 24, so it's def being used.. Heck Yahoo is the # 4 site worldwide for some reason as per Alexa

NoNexus

Why waste time eating a slice when you can have the other 7/8ths

Posted by my soon to be retired Note 3

GrzegorzWidla

Google has already eaten 7/8ths of the cake.
1/8th is the only thing left. If they want to eat more of the cake, they need to waste that time.

RobinPaul

Phew thought it was only me haha. Also i noticed the apps only work when wifi is on. Not on data.

Posted via the Android Central App

eprisencc

Its good that Microsoft is opening up to other platforms. Google does this for iOS. It would be nice if apple joined the party. Face time was supposed to be open sourced some 4 or 5 years ago.

Dizfunctions

If they did this almost every other messaging app would disappear. Apple could also potentially lose market share due to people switching to different platforms since iMessage isn't tieing them to iOS anymore.

Posted via the Android Central App

eprisencc

iMessage or even facetime is hardly keeping people tied to the apple ecosystem. Most people like apple products for their ease of use and smooth UI. I rarely use imessage or facetime on my iPhone 6+, I use hangouts more. However, I still like iPhone better than Android.

Silver Dynamite

Basically iMessage isn't popular in my country since not all people don't carry iPhones & hence are not on iMessage. Its a good product, but will never come out of Apple labs.

K White1

I downloaded the MSN Food & Drink, Weather, and News apps. They seem to work well (so does Office on my device), and I like that the news articles are available to read within the app rather than opening in the browser. I think it's great that Microsoft apps are available on multiple platforms.

Posted via AC App on HTC One

RobinPaul

Lucky. My MSN Weather doesn't open at all. It closes by itself upon opening.

Posted via the Android Central App

Mighty_Red

So they've gone back to using the MSN brand? How many brand name changes have they had? I got rid of my old hotmail spam account when MSN Messenger got killed off. I've got an outlook.com one now just for use in any MS training courses etc but otherwise I wouldn't bother with any of this. As mentioned above, most of these services can be accessed via your browser, so why waste valuable App space? I hate the idea of installing apps that don't really offer much over a browser based experience.

DJCBS

Well, these apps on WP were called "Bing Weather", "Bing News" Bing Bing Bing.
I don't think you could have a worst brand on a Microsoft product than "Bing". So they were smart in bringing the MSN brand back and get rid of "Bing". Like on WP, the apps are now just called "Weather" "News" etc. But within them they have the MSN branding instead of Bing. Microsoft has a lot of weight in enterprise and the MSN brand has always been much better there than "Bing" anywhere.
As for the usefulness of these apps...well, I have accessing websites via a phone browser. So I welcome any apps that avoid me that trouble.

Also...Bing Bing Bing Bing Bing Bing Bing Bing.

Bing.

AmbitiousOne313

I literally just moved from a Luma 1020 to a Galaxy Note 4 saturday. I had been tempted for the past few months to move from Windows Phone to Android. I LOVE the UI on Windows Phone. However. Microsoft's inability to release a flagship phone did it for me.
Since, switching on Saturday I was tempted to go back and get a Luma 830 simply because of these apps. However, with this release today, it has pretty much sealed my move to Android and it's totally up to Microsoft to compel me with a flagship Phablet and polished Window 10 for phones software to move back because I really want a windows phone. Shame on Microsoft

Posted via the Android Central App

Jose_Rey

All these apps are available at the Amazon App store as well. The only one that's not...is the one I want the most....Xbox Music...Argh. I'm sure that has more to do with Amazon than with Microsoft though. Guess I gotta learn to sideload apps.