Microsoft Start offers a bespoke news aggregation service that adapts to your preferences, accessible via a dedicated website and mobile app. This service is also woven into Windows 10 and 11, as well as the Microsoft Edge browser, ensuring seamless integration across Microsoft platforms.
By leveraging a sophisticated customization engine, Microsoft Start competes effectively with other news services by delivering content that aligns with your unique interests.
Building on Microsoft’s extensive experience in online and mobile services, Microsoft Start represents an evolution rather than a replacement of MSN, which will continue to operate.
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Understanding Microsoft Start
At its core, Microsoft Start is a customizable news feed designed to bring you a curated selection of articles from trusted publishers. It’s engineered to streamline your news consumption by presenting stories that matter to you, sourced from credible outlets.
Despite the introduction of Microsoft Start, MSN remains operational, signaling Microsoft’s commitment to providing diverse news services.
Accessing Microsoft Start is straightforward: visit the Microsoft Start website or use the service on Windows 10 and 11, and Microsoft Edge. For Windows 10, the service is available through News and Interests—click the Weather icon on your taskbar to launch it. On Windows 11, find Microsoft Start in the Widgets menu.
Edge users can find Microsoft Start on the New Tab page, keeping you informed of the latest news. The service extends to mobile devices with apps for Android and iOS, featuring synchronization capabilities that allow you to maintain a consistent feed across devices.
The Microsoft Start mobile app mirrors the Edge browser’s layout, offering additional functionalities like a Unit Converter, Translator, Math Solver, and Games, enhancing your productivity and entertainment options.
Crafting Your Microsoft Start Experience
Microsoft Start harnesses artificial intelligence to present news and articles that align with your interests. However, the power to tailor your news feed lies in your hands. By selecting Personalize on the website’s top-right corner, you initiate the customization process.
You’ll be greeted with a variety of topics to follow, including News, World News, Lifestyle, Sports, Finance, Entertainment, Video, and Autos. The search bar allows you to delve deeper, enabling you to add specific topics or favorite publishers directly to your feed.
The Experience Settings tab offers further personalization, allowing you to decide if you want to include Sports, Finance, Weather, and Traffic updates in your feed. Your bookmarked stories are neatly organized under the My Saves tab for easy access.
The History tab is a convenient feature that lets you revisit stories from the last 48 hours. Microsoft Start also adapts to your interactions, suggesting content based on your engagement with different stories.
Interaction with content on Microsoft Start is intuitive and social. You can express your reactions to stories with emojis, found in the story’s bottom-left corner, alongside the most common reactions from other readers.
For further control, the More icon, located at each story’s bottom-right corner, provides options to save stories for later or hide them. Should you choose to exclude content from a particular publisher, this icon also allows you to remove their articles from your feed, ensuring a news experience that’s truly your own.