Microsoft is building a Windows 11 team focused on creating "100% native" Windows apps and experiences

Microsoft Partner Architect Rudy Huyn has revealed that he's building a team of engineers that will be focused on "crafting meaningful user experiences" that will consist of "strong product thinking and a deep focus on the customer" on Windows 11. Additionally, Huyn has confirmed that the apps and experiences that this team will build will be 100% native to the platform.

That means no WebView or web tech welcome, which is a refreshing sign of change in the Windows org. For many years, the Windows OS has used a mishmash of web tech and native UI frameworks, which has resulted in an incredibly inconsistent user experience that feels and looks different depending on the app or interface.

This isn't so bad for third-party apps, but for in-box apps and system interfaces, it's simply unacceptable. So, the good news here is Huyn and his new team will be focused on building 100% native Windows apps, which should result in a more consistent interface, from both a design and performance perspective.

Microsoft has already confirmed that it's working to rebuild the Windows 11 Start menu using WinUI, the native UI framework for Windows. Up until now, the Start menu on Windows 11 is mostly built using React Native, which is notably not a native Windows UI framework.

Additionally, last year, the company unveiled a new agenda view for the Taskbar, which was quickly discovered to be built using WebView. Microsoft has since postponed the rollout of that feature, hopefully because it's rebuilding the feature using WinUI instead.

This effort is part of Microsoft's Windows K2 effort, which is an internal project that focuses on addressing Windows 11's top pain points and issues, and is working to move the OS towards a more stable, consistent, and easier to use experience.

Unfortunately, it's not clear what this effort means for apps like Outlook, Teams, and Copilot, which are all Web View apps on Windows and look and feel terrible to use. These apps are included in the in-box OS image, and are dragging down the overall experience of the OS, and will do for as long as they are not native Windows apps.

Given that Outlook, Teams, and Copilot aren't owned by the Windows team, it's going to be interesting to see how the Windows org handles these experiences going forward. If it were up to me, I'd pull these apps out of OS image until they were rebuilt from scratch as native Windows apps.

I'd also love to see the Windows team take a stab at building its own lightweight email client that replaces Outlook for basic email tasks, and highlights the very best of WinUI. It's clear that the organisation that owns Microsoft 365 isn't interested in building experiences that adhere to Microsoft's mdoern UI frameworks, which is a shame.

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