Microsoft researchers are testing new ways to make the company's signature Live Tiles on Windows 8 and Windows Phone much more interactive.
Microsoft, the world's biggest software company, is experimenting with Live Tiles in order to make them more interactive on Windows 8 and Windows Phone operating systems. The updated tiles will be used for more than getting just a glance of the unchecked information, such as number of unread emails or a Facebook notification.
In a Microsoft video, which was taken down shortly after being uploaded, Microsoft's Human-Computer Interaction Group researcher Jiawei Gu showed off the potential future of the Live Tiles that makes it simpler to respond to specific notifications. Three videos showing Live Tiles functionality were re-uploaded on a third-party site, Tinypic, after Microsoft links stopped working.
In the clip, Gu shows a new Live Tile functionality that lets users browse through a list of emails without opening the app. The emails appear in a separate box right on the Start Screen by tapping a corner of the tile. The video also showed Gu using a new interactive desktop tile that allows users to open desktop apps from the Windows 8 Start screen, without opening the full desktop, according to a description on ZDNet.
The Microsoft research site titled "The Interactive Tile" described the new project, before the website was taken down:
"This project features an Interactive-Tile UI system that enables users to access and manipulate Live Tiles in an interactive way with touch gestures. Interactive Tile's UI is responsive and flexible to an app's content and function. Users can provide quick input to the Interactive Tile on the Start screen. With a perception of Start as an entrance page, Interactive Tiles were introduced to empower the start screen with an intermediate access level to applications."
While there is no concrete evidence that the new Live Tiles functionality will actually make it to the Windows 8 or Windows Phone OS, Microsoft's sensitive response toward protecting the information suggests otherwise.