After the introduction of the new Microsoft Store on Windows last year, we thought it was time to recognize and celebrate some of the great apps in the Microsoft Store. Although gaming is always incredibly important to us and our customers, for these awards, we’re focusing on apps.
Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards
Earlier this year, we asked you to nominate your favorite apps in the Microsoft Store on Windows, and then to vote on the qualifying apps earlier this month. Thank you for helping us to recognize these great apps in the Store!
In addition to community choice voting, the Microsoft Store team selected the best apps for Creativity, Productivity, Social, and one for special recognition. The Microsoft Store on Windows is home to many great apps and the store catalog continues to grow. Apps were evaluated and selected based on user experience, design excellence, app quality, and customer value. We’re proud to have all the apps we’re showcasing here today in the Microsoft Store on Windows.
Here are the apps we’d like to recognize:
Special Recognition
First, there’s one app we’d like to present for special recognition from the editors. The app is Talk For Me and it was designed to “give those without a voice, a voice.”
We found this quote in the product description especially moving:
We love that the app embraces a simple, but extremely usable design for the target audience, and that it is so critical to its users.
Entertainment – Video
Whether it is for yourself or your family, our catalog is filled with so many great TV shows and movies.
The winner of the Video Entertainment category is Disney+!
The two finalists for entertainment are:
Entertainment – Audio and Music
We love listening to music and podcasts, and the apps which enable that help make our days that much more enjoyable.
Our winner in this category is Spotify!
We are pleased to share that the finalists, which are both focused on podcasts, are:
Next time you want to enjoy a little music or a podcast, you can’t go wrong with these apps, available now in the Microsoft Store.
Creativity – Graphics and 3D
There are so many great apps for creating 2D and 3D graphics, it was hard to choose. Any of the apps here could easily have won, but in the end, we had to pick.
For the winners, we had a tie between two well-loved apps. The first winner, in alphabetical order, is Canva!
The second is Paint.NET.
In addition to the two winners, we had several other finalists with their own fans on the selection teams.
- Adobe Creative Cloud Express by Adobe, Inc.
- Affinity Designer by Serif Europe Ltd
- Blender by Blender Foundation
- Concepts by TopHatch, Inc
These are all amazing apps in their own right, and equally worthy of your attention. Be sure to try them out in the Store today!
Creativity – Audio and Video
Digital storytelling and media creation are more important than ever before. To all the professionals, educators, musicians, and students out there, these are the ones for you.
Our winner for this audio and video creativity is Wondershare Filmora!
Here are the two finalists:
When the urge to be creative hits, you can’t go wrong with these apps.
Productivity
Windows is a great place to Get Stuff Done! Our pick in this category is LiquidText.
The two finalists differ greatly in what the do – both are amazing productivity apps:
Be sure to try out all of these apps to help make your day even more productive!
Social
Social networking and communication have always been important parts of our daily lives, and never more so than today.
Our pick for Social is the ever-popular Discord!
The two runners up are also one you will be familiar with:
We offer a warm thank you to the incredible Windows developer community, and to all the people who voted for the awards. We are very excited about these and other apps in the Microsoft Store, and hope you will enjoy them too!