MSN News on Windows 10 gets new 'Chaseable' Live Tile (Fast Ring)

Earlier today Microsoft pushed out an update to MSN Weather that brought an optional transparent Live Tile for Mobile. That was not all, however, as the software giant is updating all the MSN apps including News, Money, and Sports as well – at least for those on the Insider Fast Ring.
The most interesting feature, however, is for MSN News v4.17.72.0, which finally grabs a 'Chaseable' Live Tile. Announced at Build earlier this year the feature now shows you the article on the Live Tile at the top of the app when opened.
For MSN News Microsoft describes the feature in the changelog as "Live tile articles now appear at the top of My News (for the News app)." In playing with the app for a few minutes, we noticed that the Tile rotates through stories and those stories are all at the top of the My News area as expected. It makes finding the Live Tile content much easier.
Also, there are the usual changes:
- Performance, reliability and accessibility improvements
- General bug fixes
This is one of the first times we have seen Microsoft apps embrace Chaseable Tiles, which were introduced to developers with the Anniversary Update. Hopefully, as more PCs and Mobiles get on the Anniversary Update, we'll see more developers get on board (that includes our apps too).
Users in the Slow and Release Preview Insider rings should expect the new app to hit their devices in the coming week, with a final push to Production (non-Insiders) shortly after that.
Download MSN News in the Windows Store (opens in new tab)
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Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.
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When is chase-able live tile support coming to the WC app?
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Considering the old app has gone for years without an update or a fix for the many broken features, I wouldn't hold my breath. They abandoned and orphaned 8.1 users long before MS did.
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lol k
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So it is coming? More like will it ever come? xD
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It has been quite some time since the feature is available in the SDK (Since Au)
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You're kidding right? I'm not sure about the 8.1 app, but the 10 app has been updated regularly. And I don't think MS 'orphaned' 8.1 users. They offered a free upgrade, for a year to 10. If you chose to stay there, and not get the UWP apps, I believe that was your choice. They have a website as well.
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I reckon the 8.1 app was last updated for the name change from WPC to WC
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incorrect, it has had bug one or two bug fix updates.
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I think he means they orphaned some WP 8.1 users.
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Incorrect. He indeed meant 8.1 users, Windows or WP.
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We're talking about mobile here.
8.1 users with 512MB RAM were orphaned. Also, even on my Win 10 AU, I've reverted the old 8.1 app for WC. The UWP app crashes, and performs sluggishly -
My son has 512MB on his Lumia 630 and its on AU
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You realise there's a win10m app that by any chance is what he's asking for? Who ever mentioned adding chaseable tiles (win10feature) to a Winphone8.1 app? Lol (the win10m app being updated very regularly)
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Yeah, and I'm sure you also want to run W10 in your Compaq PC right? Or is it a SX-64?
C'mon, software and hardware are evolving side by side. Old 20 series lumias were not designed to run W10, there's no point in supporting it now. Stop mourning and get yourself a better phone, seriously -
Hello. I have two apps of Windows Central on my 640. One has bigger icon than the other one. So, which one is specific for W10? I've been told in this site that one of them is for W8.1. None of these apps has the "About" info
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Awesome
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Off topic but not getting any response on forum. Thinking of getting back on the slow ring for RS2. I went back to release preview ring after AU. Is RS2 stable enough for a daily driver yet? I'm ok with it being a little buggy.
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Yes, its good for daily driver in my opinion.
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Yes, finally!
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A much much needed feature for News. It was so annoying when you saw a news that interested you on the live tile but when you open you couldn't find it.
Btw any solution for installing .448 on RP. Keeps showing an error while preparing to install and says no internet connection when trying to switch to production -
I actually like the way the live tile already works for this, when it works. Good feature to have though.
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Just chaseable, correct? No transparency for News yet? I'm liking the changes! These should hit Preview ring in a week or so. Looking forward to it :)
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Finally! Hopefully they will implement something good in regards to Chasable Tile Support. Some apps that I used with Chasable Live Tile is rather novelty rather than being super useful, since I don't always necessarily want to open the article on what's on the live tile currently. This is why the best would be able to implement Interactive Live Tile, a much needed evolution of Live Tile since its introduction. With this, it makes Live Tile totally useful beyond just a glancable information and a solid functionality upgrade that everything else after that will look be minor, unless for another big UX evolution for Live Tile and Start. Posted from alternate universe
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Re: aXross,
Please explain. Tell us more. How would the features, that you are suggesting, look and function? -
They could start with a context menu with trap and hold like it does on pc, that's one method. Not pretty but effective.
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Tap and hold is used to edit the tile. I agree with you that they should make that activate interactive live tile with the release of hold being the selection you choose; the "center"tile while the tile of expanded should be your neutral tile making it easy to opt of selecting anything from the expanded view. They should change the "edit tile" gesture to double tap or double tap and hold until options for tile customization controls appears then you can release.
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Tap and Hold/Right Click is I think should be replaced for using Interactive Live Tile. This way you don't need a special hardware such as Force Touch or 3D/Hover Touch just to have another tertiary action, means any device will support the feature and everybody can take advantage of it. More incentive for developers to implement the functionality because there is less likely of fragmentation (or none at all for the most part). The only problem with this is it would confuse users who are too used of thinking right-click for context menu or tap-and-hold to enter 'edit' mode to drag tiles around. For me this should not be a big deal since re-arranging tiles are not a common task to do on Start menu/screen. RIght-click for context menu yes, that is why having it use as part of Interactive Live Tile mechanism make more sense. Jumplist functionality will be just part of it. All context-menu actions will be under the ellipsis button and to arrange tiles, user will have separate button to activate "Edit Mode". The side-affect advantage of this is that it will less likely for user to accidentally ruin the layout of their Live Tiles, especially with new Lock function. Imho Interactive Live Tile needs to happen for once and for all. It will give the virtually limitless capability of Live Tiles and enhancing how we use Start and in Windows in general. Unlike Gadgets from Vista and 7 where it is independent from apps, thus may or may not fully take advantage and integrate well with the apps installed on the OS. Live Tiles is basically an extension of an app outside the app experience. This guarantees the functionality and proper integration unlike the old Gadget/Widget system. Interactive Live Tiles at least in theory is the best of both worlds with less compromise between the two seperate approach. I just recently posted a feedback about this: feedback-hub:?contextid=49&feedbackid=89cb6a7d-0e1b-4eef-8eb0-1215c6a76e11&form=1&src=2
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The good thing is the number of users, even if all of us would get confused, is not a lot. One of the expanded tiles could be a dedicated "edit tile". Add it to the design language.
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I think replacing the right-click and tap-to-hold interaction for Interactive Live Tile state, replacing the current ones we have now. Its a balance approach and virtually no fragmentation since everybody with the same version of Windows 10 can use the functionality without relying on specific hardware requirements such as 3D Touch and Force Touch technologies. The only big downside I can think of here is the potential confusion of users where the context-menu and moving a tile "isn't working" anymore since it's been replaced by new Interactive Live Tile. The user will have to go to another hops of let's say clicking/tapping ellipsis menu with all old functionalities are kept. In order to move Live Tiles there will be indeed something like "Edit Mode" where a user can free rearrange the layout of Start menu/screen just like before. It's just that it won't be as straightforward as before which I think should be an acceptable compromises as it is not common task to always rearrange Start layout. IMHO Interactive Live Tile needs to happen for once and for all. It's a big major step for evolution of Live Tiles which gives countless of potential and capabilities on Live Tiles which will enhance how we use Start menu/screen and Windows in general. I just recently posted a feedback about this: feedback-hub:?contextid=49&feedbackid=89cb6a7d-0e1b-4eef-8eb0-1215c6a76e11&form=1&src=2
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Something like that, though I think more of replacing that Right-Click and Tap-and-Hole to activate Interactive Live Tile state instead of current behaviour. It's a compromise but at least we won't need a specialized hardware for that, thus every user with same Windows 10 version and beyond can take advantage of it, which prevents fragmentation and giving more incentive for developers to take advantage of new functionality for their apps. Rearranging Live Tiles are not supposed to be a common task to do on Start screen/menu anyways. Why not just replace it with something that can actually enhance how we use Start. This is the opportunity for Microsoft to fully evolve Live Tiles since its introduction, not just tweaking things and making new sizes.
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Widgets. That is what he is describing.
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Chaseable? More like dead for me. The live tile has stopped working since the update on my phone.
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Soft restart then
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Flipboard should follow suit, I stopped using MSN News.
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All Microsoft core app should have the option to go transparent.
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Not seeing this on Mobile.
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I wonder what took them so long. They announced it at build but why didnt they release updates for their apps soon after that including those new features?
I just don't get it. Same with windows ink. Just now we got the foto app with windows ink. They said it would be one or two lines of code! So what took them so long?
Microsoft please show other developers how it can work and do it faster after you announce something! -
It's one or two lines of code for pure C# or VB UWP apps. A whole different matter are HTML apps, or C++ apps. Microsoft actually offers a lot of guidance, but the reality is, that developers in the consumer sphere are concentrating on where the money is. This includes most apps from MSFT, from companies-within-company, which are free to choose their own development path. If MSFT were Google, Office would have long been converted to C#, trimming a lot of fat in the process. But as there are no coherent decision cycles, anything stays convoluted.
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Ok. But still i think Microsoft should show their apps as an example for third party developers and should provide new plattform features asap...
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I think a lot of people agree and that's part of Ms' communication problem. The media narrative has changed from 'one Microsoft' but truth be told. Microsoft is still transitioning. The job is far from done. The news cycle on that topic has just passed.
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Re: McZosch,
Typing too fast? Tricky to read. -
Beyond what @McZosch said, you need to consider that there's no team which is focused solely on apps. The team is building Windows as a whole and making those changes to apps is one of their least priorities.
But I also think they took too long to do it, and as other apps also didn't implement, I really thought that it was a hoax or they simply delayed it to next update. Hope other apps follow -
Finally! This bugged me. It's so easy to implement.
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This was a huge annoyance with Windows mobile. Can't believe it took them so long to have this feature in the OS. Now we have to wait for the app developers to implement. Sad state of affairs.
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Same with rich notifications with image banners.... Never seen those either
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MS's Facebook app had this, but the image banner had such a low resolution it was actually worthless.
I think maybe Cortana reminders with photos may have it as well, but I never used that -
Cominf soon is coming.
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I thought this was supposed to come to Cortana as well?
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Not seeing this on any of my insider version phones. Any ideas
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Any news on why there's no "apps for websites" in the store as far as I've seen? Not even facebook or the large social networks.
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There is Windows Central app
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What a terrible app, you cant search and add websites you want?? Something like Gizmodo or IGN do not appear at all..So doesnt show the news feeds you actually want. Ive started using Apple News on my work iphone and i have to say its the best news app ive ever used! I even ditched Flipboard and replaced it with Apple news now.
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Doesn't open the article though, brings it to the front. Still impressive . More apps should get this feature now. Specially WC, FB, Instagram etc
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That's up to the user to open it or to browse other content from that position. This is the right balance, i was worried it would open things straight up when accessed.
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A pity though they didn't go the extra mile and actually open the article from thechaseable tile. It might be easier to find the tile from the news reel on the tile, but the true value of this function is ti be able to jump directly to to article in the app from the tile. This feature is also coded and supported for in this feature. With the current execution of this function it is still a two step process to actually open the article and start reading. Its a small improvement but in most cases, even now without the chaseable tile enabled in the slow ring I still would like to jump directly to the article from the tile and skip the skip homepage. I dont need to glance at the article a second time at the top op the homeoage to be really really sure I want to read it.
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Did you forget to consider the times when someone just may want to open the app and not go straight to the article and under your implementation have no choice JUST because the tile is live, a premier feature to the windows os? Or are you just that inconsiderate that you only care about your desires?
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I don't think I am incosiderate, but windows 10 is still in its early stages, and it was already announced that the chaseable tiles api can do more than what announced today. One of the features was that pressing on the article can directly open the app from the article. I is the feature I am looking for for developers to use and exploit in windows 10. I think it will make the experience more enjoyable and richer. I am certainly keen on seeing this feature implemented. 1. Chaseable live tile on/ reel off: pressing on the live tile will open the app and push the articles from the reel of app front and center in the app, which will make articles easier to find. 2. Chaseable live tile on/reel on: pressing on the specific artilce shown on the live tile reel will open the app directly to the article. 3. Chaseable live tile off: the live tile will show the article reel on the live tile, but opening the app will start up the app showing artciles in the default behavior, not pushing articles front and center.(there may be people who do not want the chaseable feature at all).
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Of course you wouldn't. Inconsideration is inherently not thinking you are being inconsiderate.
But you clearly are.
Those apis make more sense in some apps then others. But for a news app, it's a very selfish endeavor to have that desire -
I think this api would be every useful in news apps. . It makes a lot of sense to me. Which apps would you consider to be useful for? I think all the options being inclusive are the best solution to consider most users preferences. Simply stating either yours or mine would be incosiderate, wouldn't it?
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No. This implementation is better as is. What if I want to open the app regardless of the article on my tile? I don't want to be forced to read something I'm not, so It would be an extra (unnecessary) step going back to the start menu. I always find myself looking for the content shown on my Live Tile, seldom do I get to find it -- if ever, sometimes. Now, if say about giving us the OPTION of doing things your way, then I'm down for it as well. It's always good to make as many customers as possible satisfied.
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Kind of defeats the whole purpose of the feature then, doesn't it?
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Nope. With this you don't have to go find for the article. It's one of the top articles. It's actually the perfect implementation IMO. What you are describing can get really irritating after the honeymoon period with that new feature (when you just want to open the app).
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option sounds good.
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None of these "fast ring app updates" have anything to do with the OS, so why do they keep releasing updates for apps only on fast ring?
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That's such an awesome feature!! Really reinforces the power and capabilities of the Live Tiles. Hope it gets to the Release Preview soon!
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Live tile doesnt work at all for me. 950 XL DS US
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This app has become a joke ever since it got its windows 10 form. It shows only a handful of new items per day and I see the same bullshit articles for months now. They won't go away. What a disaster this app.
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Yeah, that's why I ended up just removing it. I actually like the app the first big while, but then I noticed that the same "news" kept getting to the top and in between the actual news. I also hate those inane lists of things, places, people etc. that keeps popping, they're all really click-bait like....
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Yea all this clickbait annoys me too. And those Microsoft promotion articles lol.
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grab em by the *****
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News is so slow on Windows Central these days. Such a shame that Microsoft decided to go corporate rather than consumer....(leaves websites like these ones with nothing to report)
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Off topic my outlook calendar app doesn't update anymore is anybody experience this?
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me too , the date number as been stuck . live tiles on w10 are a mess.
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This feature is no longer working.. As always.. Introduced then cancelled, later reintroduced, after tht add new features again, just to abandon completely later on.
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Hey daniel, can u please make a post about how to play asphalt 8 local wifi multiplayer on windows phone and about the best local wifi multiplayer games on windows store
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I'm just happy that all my transparent live tiles are together and I will be able to see my city landscape home screen without an obstruction, (the News app was anyways problematic).
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