MSN

Review by eFreeware

MSN is Microsoft's news and information app for Android, listed under News & Magazines. It is free to install and has been around a long time: the current release dates back to December 2014, with an update in September 2026, and it has passed 10 million installs with a 4.5 average across more than 300,000 ratings.

The pitch is breadth in one place. Rather than a single publication's output, the app gathers articles from a large pool of publishers and arranges them into a feed shaped around your interests, then wraps weather, market data and short videos around that core. The recent change note explains the naming: what used to be Microsoft Start now carries the MSN name, with the same feed underneath.

What draws me to it is the combination. Plenty of apps do headlines well and plenty do forecasts well; fewer try to put both, plus a stock watchlist and a video stream, behind one icon. If you already check two or three separate apps each morning, consolidating that routine is the main reason to give this one a look.

A tailored feed built from many publishers

The centerpiece is the personalized feed. Stories come from thousands of publishers, and the app arranges them according to the topics and sources you show interest in, so the mix shifts as your reading does. The promise is a front page that reflects your interests instead of a fixed editorial lineup.

That breadth is the appeal and also the thing to weigh. A feed assembled from many outlets will surface voices you would never have picked yourself, which suits readers who like scanning widely and forming their own view. If you prefer a small set of trusted mastheads, the same variety can feel like noise, and the work of tuning it falls to you.

I would expect this to fit people who treat news as a broad daily sweep rather than a deep dive into one subject. It reads best as a starting point for the day: skim the feed, follow what matters, move on.

Weather forecasts and air quality in the same app

The weather section covers hourly and 10-day forecasts, along with air quality, UV index and similar readings. That is a more complete picture than a simple high-and-low glance: the UV figure matters if you are planning time outdoors, and air quality is useful on days when smoke or smog is a concern.

Having it inside a news app is convenient rather than revolutionary. You are not opening a second app to check whether rain is coming before you leave, and the forecast sits alongside the headlines you were already reading. For a daily check of conditions in one or two locations, that is enough.

The 10-day view is the part I would use most, since it covers planning a week ahead without much scrolling. Anyone who wants radar animation, severe-weather alerts or hyperlocal detail will find a standard feature set here rather than a specialist toolkit.

Markets, watchlists and a stream of short clips

The finance hub brings market news, trends and your favorite stocks together. You can keep an eye on the tickers you care about while reading the day's business coverage, which is a sensible pairing: the number and the story behind it in one place. For anyone who follows a handful of holdings without wanting a full trading platform, this covers the basics.

The video feed is the other half of the entertainment side. It is a scrollable stream of short clips covering breaking news, trending stories and viral moments, in the vertical format most people now expect. It is built for idle minutes rather than long viewing, and the developer pitches it as personalized to your interests.

Together these two sections explain why the app aims wider than headlines. A reader who checks a watchlist at lunch and watches a few clips in the evening gets more out of it than someone who only wants articles. The trade-off is that each of these areas is a generalist's version of a dedicated tool, competent rather than exhaustive.

Free to install, funded by advertising

MSN costs nothing to download and carries no in-app purchases, so there is no paywall to run into and nothing to buy once you are inside. The app contains ads.

That is the whole cost picture: free, with no purchases. For a daily news reader, an ad-supported model is a familiar arrangement. The content rating is Everyone 10+, which is worth noting if the app ends up on a shared family device.

I would treat the ads as the price of admission rather than a flaw in itself. If you already accept advertising in exchange for free news, weather and market data, the arrangement here will not surprise you.

How it compares with single-purpose apps

The natural comparison is not another news app but the cluster of apps MSN tries to replace. A dedicated weather service will go deeper on forecasts and alerts. A brokerage or finance app will offer more market tooling. A short-video platform will serve an endless stream built purely for entertainment. MSN's argument is that you can skip installing three of them and still cover the basics.

The other comparison is with a single publisher's app. Those give you one editorial voice and a clear sense of what you are getting. MSN gives you range instead, drawing on a wide pool of outlets and letting your reading habits sort the mix. Neither approach is better in the abstract; they answer different questions about how you like to read.

My read is that the consolidation argument holds up if your needs in each area are moderate. If weather is a serious hobby, or markets are your work, the specialist tools will earn their place alongside this one rather than being replaced by it.

A sensible daily companion for broad readers

MSN is worth installing if you want one app for the morning routine: headlines from a wide range of publishers, an hourly and 10-day forecast with air quality and UV readings, a watchlist for the stocks you follow, and short videos for the gaps in your day. It is free, it has no purchases, and it carries advertising.

The reader it fits best is the generalist. Someone who scans broadly, checks the weather before heading out and keeps half an eye on a few tickers will find all of that in one place, backed by a long track record and a strong average rating from a large audience. Someone who wants depth in any one of those areas will keep a specialist app around as well.

For everyone in between, the calculation is simple: one install, no cost, and a feed that adapts as you use it. That is a low-risk addition to a phone's home screen.

What's new

Microsoft Start is now MSN, same great experience and personalized content feed​.