How to turn on notification badges on Microsoft Launcher

By Sean Endicott
last updated

Microsoft Launcher
Microsoft Launcher (Image credit: Windows Central)

Microsoft Launcher features a straightforward interface that has quite a few customization options. For example, you can turn on notification badges that allow you to glance at your home screen and see which apps have notifications waiting. You can turn on numbers or red dots depending on your preference. You can also turn these notification badges off if you prefer a clean home screen.

How to turn notification badges on or off on Microsoft Launcher

  1. Download Microsoft Launcher (opens in new tab) or see the mobile app link below.

Microsoft Launcher Notification Badges Pill (Image credit: Windows Central)
  1. Press and hold your home screen. This will show a page with options to add widgets, change your wallpaper, or change launcher settings.
  2. Select Launcher Settings (you can also reach this page by clicking on Launcher in the app drawer).
  3. Select Home screen.
  4. Select Notification badges.

Source: Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Windows Central)
  1. Toggle Show notification badges on (or off if you prefer not to show them).
  2. Select Got it when prompted to display all messages.
  3. Toggle Microsoft Launcher on.
  4. Press Allow.
  5. Return to the Notification badges section to make sure they are toggled on or off, depending on your preference.

Customizing notification badges on Microsoft Launcher

Now that you've enabled notification badges, you can customize how they appear. You can turn on dots or numbers for the badges and select specific apps to show or not show notification badges.

  1. Press and hold your home screen. This will show a page with options to add widgets, change your wallpaper, or change launcher settings.
  2. Select Launcher Settings (you can also reach this page by clicking on Launcher in the app drawer).
  3. Select Home screen.
  4. Select Notification badges.

Microsoft Launcher Notification Badges Pill (Image credit: Windows Central)
  1. Select Notification Type to switch between dots and numbers.
  2. Select Numbers or Dots depending on your preference.
  3. Return to the Notification badges section of Microsoft Launcher's settings.
  4. Select Pick which apps have badges.
  5. Check or uncheck the apps you want to show or not show notification badges.

Microsoft Launcher logo
Microsoft Launcher


This launcher for Android features a clean design and integrates with Microsoft services, including Microsoft To-Do, Office 365, and Outlook.

Sean Endicott
Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott brings nearly a decade of experience covering Microsoft and Windows news to Windows Central. He joined our team in 2017 as an app reviewer and now heads up our day-to-day news coverage. If you have a news tip or an app to review, hit him up at sean.endicott@futurenet.com (opens in new tab).

16 Comments
  • please let me know how to move apps to folder in MS launcher. its very hard to do so
  • What exactly are you having an issue with? I just drag an icon from the list of apps to the folder I want it to go to. You can also just add them to home then drag them to folders if that is easer. If you want to create a folder you just drag one icon over another and it will create it automatically
  • You can also long press on an existing folder and then it will let you select apps to add from a list.
  • The 6.2 update is horrid. I understand the reconfiguring to confirm to Duo, but it's just a horrid experience now on a single screen. It's like some kid in self-isolation decided to do a knockoff of what Launcher had been. To keep with OT, notifications used to show on the Frequently Used app list. Nada now, greatly reducing the utility of that feature. What used to be a great productivity feature, the Calendar page, got stuffed at the *bottom* of the Home page stack, so you'll have to scroll a page or 3 down to reach it. The search bar on the top of the Feed page now auto hides, and quickly, with no control for this behavior. The visually jarring forced opaqueness of the Feed page, this used to be able to be turned off, now, its just there. And then the bold fonts......
  • You can move the calendar card anywhere you want with the Edit button at the bottom.
  • I have no problems with it. It's not that different from before...yes the notifications badge is not there for frequently used apps my for my usage that isn't where I'm looking for notifications. You can move the calendar as the other poster said. The search bar can be accessed on a non feed page by just pulling down on the screen. If you want you can even place a search bar on your home screen. Personally I like the opaqueness of the feed screen, I think it looks much better. But choice is always good to your point.
  • Yeah, you can move the Calendar card on the Feed page, but it also used to have an entire separate page. I don't see where the now vertical order of the Home page can be reordered.
  • I've been having a terrible experience with the launcher for the past week. Every day my recent apps list gets completely reorganized to apps I never use
  • Still works well on my Note 8. I haven't explored the notification badges, but may try them out.
  • My notification badges disappeared after this update. I turned them off/on, rebooted... still nothing.
  • Check permissions. After updating I was prompted to go to Android settings to enable the required permissions for reading notifications.
  • The badges don't show likes on Facebook obviously it does if it a comment. My native launcher shows a badge for likes. MS Launcher did do this at one time but doesn't seem to know. I have reported it to them several times.
  • My Android Skype app doesn't show badges. How do I fix that, if I can fix it.
  • Any ideas how to open the first app from a folder when you tap on the folder? Previously I had it configured like this, so tap on folder would open the first app and swipe up on folder would open the folder.
  • What I want to know is a) why did the update make folders look hideous and b) how can I get back to how they would show all apps in them at once? Even having 'open folders in full screen' makes one have to scroll through pages within a folder. Fail!
  • So how do they look?