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How to Get Windows 8 Metro-Style Live Tiles on Your Android Device

Jan 9, 2013 04:25 PM

Jan 9, 2013 06:21 PM

Hand touching smartphone screen with app icons.

Love the look of Metro's live tiles, but can't see yourself ever owning a Windows Phone device? Then fear not—you don't have to subject yourself to Windows Phone in order to experience those sweet live tiles. You can simply use Tile Launcher, a new launcher app for Android devices that simulates the Metro interface pretty well.

Windows 8 Start Menu with various application tiles.

Image Credit wonderhowto.com

Tile Launcher, which is in beta for Android 4.0 and above, allows users to style their homescreen with customizable tiles à la the Metro user interface!

Smartphone home screen with colorful app icons and time display.

Image Credit imageshack.us

Mobile device home screen with app icons for messaging, mail, music, and web browser.

Image Credit imageshack.us

Some of the features of the app include:

Optimized scrolling
Completely customize any tile and defaults for new tiles
Shortcut/widget settings
Desktop settings, change rows/columns, gap size
Wallpaper scrolling options
Multiple screens

Tile settings menu with options for screen orientation, wallpaper behavior, dimensions (rows and columns), and grid size adjustment.

Image Credit imageshack.us

How to Get Windows 8 Metro-Style Live Tiles on Your Android Device

Image Credit imageshack.us

Note: Since the application is in beta, be weary of any issues. Some of the known problems are the tiles moving around when being dragged, overlapping of top left tiles and widget drop causing restart.

You can download Tile Launcher (Beta) on Google Play (it's free).

The next big software update for iPhone is coming sometime in April and will include a Food section in Apple News+, an easy-to-miss new Ambient Music app, Priority Notifications thanks to Apple Intelligence, and updates to apps like Mail, Photos, Podcasts, and Safari. See what else is coming to your iPhone with the iOS 18.4 update.