Microsoft has upgraded the user interface on the Office 365 App Launcher to make it look more like the Windows 10 start menu. The experience is designed to be consistent across desktops and Microsoft Surface devices. There is now a tabbed layout with three sections, home, new and all. The home screen where users can organise and pin their most used applications.
The tabbed layout with the "New" Section.
The tabbed layout with the “New” Section.
There are tiles available for the applications, and these can be positioned or resized as per requirement. The ellipses menu on the top right of application tiles contains three size options, small, medium and wide. The New section is an easy way to access the most recently installed apps. When new apps are installed, a badge with a notification appears. The All section lists the entire catalogue of applications that are subscribed to, and has a handy search field to search anywhere within Office 365.
Resizing the tiles.
Resizing the tiles.
At the right end of the navigation bar, three applications can be pinned. There is now a support for Office 365 themes. The settings menu now has options to select themes, and organisations can create custom themes for use by their employees. A feature to display recent documents on clicking or tapping of the ellipses menu is being planned. Apps from Office 365, the Office store, Azure, SharePoint and Line of Business will be displayed by the launcher.
Themes in office 365.
Themes in office 365.
System administrators also have the option of including custom tiles for the employees of their organisations. Only customers with the Exchange service can pin, resize or customise apps, and access the tabbed layout. Those who have opted in for the First Release program will see the updates by the end of September. The First Release program allows an organisation to recieve new updates first, and the ability to control which employees receive the updates. Those who have not signed up for the First Release program will see the new update rolling out in October.