Tag: Arrow Launcher

Microsoft’s Arrow Launcher for Android has slowly but surely becoming a solid launcher for Android devices.  The company, through the Microsoft Garage project team, has continually been adding features, improving the stability, and the performance of the launcher.

If you are a heavy Microsoft user, you should consider Arrow Launcher for your launcher.  You can read my review of it here.

Back in June, in the 3.5 update to Arrow Launcher, the introduced a new feature, Arrow Hub.  Arrow Hub allows you to easily sync photos, documents, videos and anything you have in your Android device’s clipboard to the cloud which you can then get to via the web or OneDrive.  It is brilliantly simple and is an effective way to get files from your phone to your PC, Mac or Chromebook.

So how does it work and how do you get to your files?  In this How To I will outline how the feature works on your Android device and how to get to those files.

Prerequisite:  This How To assumes that you are running Arrow Launcher on your Android phone.  If you are not, you can download it free from the Play Store.  It also assumes that you have a Microsoft account that you can use with Arrow Launcher, OneDrive, etc.

Microsoft continues to tweak and incrementally improve their Android launcher app, Arrow Launcher.  The latest beta of the launcher has hit testers this week and with it comes a handful of refinements.  None of the new features in the version 3.8 build are major changes but collectively, there are a lot of small touches & improvements to the launcher to make it a more personalized experience and visually, more satisfying experience.

On the personalization front, your Microsoft account avatar is now shown in the settings of the launcher.  Linking your Microsoft account to Arrow Launcher has been there for some time but now you will see your avatar and can quickly launch into your account settings from Arrow.

Microsoft Arrow Launcher has yet another update rolling out in the Play Store.  The update, version 3.6.0.34513 for those keeping score at home, brings a number of UI tweaks and improvements to the launcher.  Many of these tweaks are just that:  Tweaks.  There are, however, some new features to be found in the update too.

One of those new features is the ability to hide the system status bar at the top of your phone.  The system status bar is where you see things like your mobile signal indicator, Wi-Fi indicator, battery and notification icons.  Now you can hide it from view for a cleaner look to your home screens.  To view the status bar, you can just swipe down from the top of your home screen.  This new feature is found in Settings>General settings>Keep status bar.

Last month I told you about the latest beta of Microsoft’s Arrow Launcher bringing support for Android tablets.  That support is now official.  The latest update to the popular launcher is rolling out in the Play Store now and with it comes support for tablets along with a handful of other updates & tweaks.  The support of tablets is something that long time Arrow users have requested of Microsoft as it gives a uniform experience across their devices.

Along with with, Arrow Launcher also supports horizontal layout for your apps page from the app drawer.  This is primarily aimed at tablets and it is an option that needs to be enabled.  The backup & restore feature also has more backup options available.  It still backs everything up to OneDrive but you can now have it save things like SMS messages too.

Microsoft Arrow Launcher on a Nexus 9

The utility page, something that was introduced in the last update to the app, can also be configured in this new release.  You can show it or hide it as well as chose if you want the card to be transparent or white.  For those who may have tried Arrow Launcher in the past, the utility page is now where you find things like your recent contacts, your recent documents and other information.  These all use to be separate pages in the launcher so having them all in once place makes life a bit easier.

If you have Arrow Launcher installed on your phone, you should get the update to the latest build over the course of the next few days.  Unless you are in the beta, you will need to go to the Play Store to install it on your tablet.

Microsoft has once again pushed out another big update to their Android launcher app, Arrow Launcher.  The update is in the Play Store now and has a number of improvements and new features.  In fact, there are three big features that users of the launcher will likely enjoy immediately.  First is the ability to customize the icon and name of individual apps.  All you have to do is long press the icon and it will pop-up a menu that gives you these options.

Next is an all new backup and restore feature.  This gives you the option to save your app layout and settings and restore them if you need to reinstall the launcher.  This is a huge win as you no longer have to recreate your home screen layout if you delete and reinstall the app.  This is something many other launchers do so it is great to see Microsoft bring the feature to Arrow Launcher too.

Microsoft has rolled out yet another update to their Android launcher, Arrow Launcher.  The update, version 2.4.0 for those keeping score at home, brings a handful of changes and improvements including a much improved search function.  Now within the launcher you can search not just the web but also apps and contacts on your phone.  This brings Arrow on par with other launchers that have similar functionality built into them.

This update also brings some needed performance improvements.  This has been an area that Microsoft has been working on the launcher for some time and every update it gets a little bit better.  This 2.4 update really made big strides.  Performance is noticeably faster, particularly when swiping from one page to another.  It also opens apps much faster than the previous build.