Announcing the Microsoft Store App Awards Winners!

[Pete Brown]

Since launching the new Microsoft Store on Windows last year, we’ve welcomed thousands of great desktop apps and games. We are excited to introduce the Microsoft Store App Awards and recognize select developers and apps. We're excited to introduce the Microsoft Store Community Choice Awards, which are nominated by the community, and the Microsoft Store Editor's Choice Awards, which are apps recognized by Microsoft. Although gaming is always incredibly important to us and our customers, for these awards, we're focused on apps.

Microsoft Store Community 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!

Utility Category​

The Utility category is to recognize apps that help automate tasks, diagnose issues, record of share your screen, navigate drivers, and more. When you use these apps, they are indispensable.

Winners​

Congratulations to the winners of the Utility category: ShareX and Speedtest by Ookla!

Runners Up​

Torrex Lite Fluent Screen Recorder

Finalists​

• 2fast – Two Factor Authenticator Supporting TOTP
• Fluent Screen Recorder
• MyASUS
• Screenbits – Screen Recorder
• ShareX
• Speedtest by Ookla
• Torrex Lite – Torrent Downloader
• Visum Photo Viewer
• WiFi Analyzer

The finalists were all nominated by the community, so be sure to use the links above to download these and try them out!

File Management Category​

The apps in this category help manage files on your Windows PC, by viewing and sorting, editing metadata, converting, compressing, and much more. These are the ones you told us were the most important to you:

Winners​

Congratulations to Files App and Rufus!

Runners Up​

8 Zip One Commander

Finalists​

• 8 Zip
• Files App
• HEIC to JPEG
• IrfanView64
• Metro Commander
• Mp3tag
• NanaZip
• One Commander
• QuickLook
• Rufus
• Shrestha Files Pro

File management is a key part of any productivity workflow, so be sure to try out these apps yourself!

Open Platform Category​

Windows is an open platform for innovation. We know that not every customer uses Windows in the same way -- some want to modify different parts of the UI or make some features more accessible for them. These are the apps you said turn Windows into your Windows.

Winners​

Congratulations to the winners in this category: Auto Dark Mode, EarTrumpet, and ModernFlyouts!

Runners Up​

Lively Wallpaper TranslucentTB

Finalists​

• Auto Dark Mode
• CopyAndPaste
• Dynamic Theme
• EarTrumpet
• Fluent Search
• Ink Workspace
• Lively Wallpaper
• ModernFlyouts
• RoundedTB
• TranslucentTB

We’re excited and humbled by the community participation for these awards. Thank you again for the great nominees, and for picking the apps which are the most important to you! Finally, thanks to the developers of these apps! We love the diversity of technology used, and the teams who created them. From individual developers through to distributed projects, open source, and larger companies, you’ve shown that amazing, beautiful, and useful apps can come from development teams of any size and type.

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards​

In addition to community choice voting, the Microsoft Store team selected the best apps for Creativity, Entertainment, 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:

"I have ALS [Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis]. It took my voice and I have not been able to communicate with my loved ones. I bought an eye gaze device so could access my windows 8 tablet. I found Talk for Me. This app has everything that all the highly priced programs have. it is customizable and very easy to use. Customer service is top notch! I love it! I can finally speak to my family with Talk For Me!"​

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: Hulu for Windows Tubi

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’re pleased to share that the finalists, which both focus on podcasts, are: FluentCast Grover Pro 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 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: dJay Pro by Algoriddim Animotica – Movie Maker by Mixilab 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 they do - both are amazing productivity apps: Drawboard PDF Shapr3D

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 ones you will be familiar with Telegram Desktop WhatsApp Desktop We’ll reach out to all the winners soon. 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!

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