Core Windows Phone 7 is the only version of
Windows Phone that features the
Windows CE kernel, which was also used in
Windows Mobile and
Pocket PC systems.
User interface Windows Phone 7 features a
user interface based on a design system codenamed and commonly referred to as
Metro. The home screen, called "Start screen", is made up of "Live Tiles". Tiles are links to applications, features, functions and individual items (such as contacts, web pages, applications or media items). Users can add, rearrange, or remove tiles. Tiles are dynamic and update in real time – for example, the tile for an email account would display the number of unread messages or a tile could display a live update of the weather. Several key features of Windows Phone 7 are organized into "hubs", which combine local and online content via Windows Phone's integration with popular
social networks such as
Facebook,
Windows Live, and
Twitter. showing Start screen of Windows Phone 7.8 Windows Phone uses
multi-touch technology. The user may choose a light theme instead, and can also choose from several accent colors. User interface elements such as tiles are shown in the user's chosen accent color.
Third-party applications can be automatically themed with these colors.
Text input Users input text by using an on-screen
virtual keyboard, which has a dedicated key for inserting
emoticons, and features spell checking App developers (both inhouse and ISV) may specify different versions of the virtual keyboard in order to limit users to certain character sets, such as numeric characters alone. Users may change a word after it has been typed by tapping the word, which will invoke a list of similar words. Pressing and holding certain keys will reveal similar characters. The keys are somewhat larger and spaced farther apart when in landscape mode. Phones may also be made with a hardware keyboard for text input.
Messaging Windows Phone 7's messaging system is organized into threads. This allows a conversation with a person to be held through multiple platforms (such as
Windows Live Messenger,
Facebook messaging, or
SMS) within a single thread, dynamically switching between services depending on availability.
Web browser Windows Phone 7.5 features a version of
Internet Explorer Mobile with a rendering engine that is based on
Internet Explorer 9. The built-in web browser allows the user to maintain a list of favorite web pages and tiles linking to web pages on the Start screen. The browser supports up to 6 tabs, which can all load in parallel. Other features include multi-touch gestures, a streamlined UI, smooth zoom in/out animations, the ability to save pictures that are on web pages, share web pages via email, and support for inline search which allows the user to search for a word or phrase in a web page by typing it. Microsoft has announced plans to regularly update the Windows Phone web browser and its layout engine independently from the Windows Phone Update system.
Contacts Contacts are organized via the People hub, and can be manually entered into contacts or imported from
Facebook,
Windows Live Contacts,
Twitter,
LinkedIn and
Gmail. Contacts may be manually imported from
Outlook using
Windows Live Contacts or
Gmail. A "What's New" section shows a news feed and a "Pictures" section shows pictures from contacts on those social networks. A "Me" section shows the phone user's own social networks status and wall, allows the user to update their status, and allows checking into Bing and Facebook Places. Contacts can be added to the home screen by pinning them to the start. The contact's "
Live Tile" displays their social network status and profile picture on the homescreen and the contact's hub displays their Facebook wall as well as all of the rest of their contact information and information from their other social networks. If a contact has information stored on multiple networks, users can link the two separate contact accounts, allowing the information to be viewed and accessed from a single card. As of Windows Phone 7.5, contacts can also be sorted into Groups. Here, information from each of the contacts is combined into a single page which can be accessed directly from the Hub or pinned to the Start screen.
Email Windows Phone supports
Outlook.com,
Exchange,
Yahoo! Mail, and
Gmail natively and supports many other services via the
POP and
IMAP protocols. For the native account types, contacts and calendars may be synced as well. Users can also search through their email by searching in the subject, body, senders, and receivers. Emails are shown in threading view and multiple email inboxes can be combined or kept separate.
Multimedia The Music + Videos hub allows the user to access music, videos, and podcasts stored on the device, and links directly to the Xbox Music Store to buy music, or rent with the
Xbox Music Pass subscription service. When browsing the music by a particular artist, users are able to view artist biographies and photos, provided by the Xbox Music. Unlike the previous Windows Mobile operating system, there are currently no third-party applications for handling other video formats. The image file formats that are supported include
JPG/JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIF and Bitmap (BMP).
Search Microsoft's hardware requirements stipulate that every device running Windows Phone 7 must have a dedicated Search button on the front of the device that performs different actions. This has been changed in Windows Phone 7.5 however – as the search button is reserved for Bing – so applications that previously used this feature (such as the Marketplace) now include soft search buttons. In other cases, pressing the Search button will allow the user to perform a search of web sites, news, and map locations using the
Bing application. Windows Phone also has a
voice recognition function, powered by
TellMe, which allows the user to perform a Bing search, call contacts or launch applications simply by speaking. This can be activated by pressing and holding the phone's Start button. Bing is the default
search engine on Windows Phone handsets due to its deep integration of functions into the OS (which also include the utilization of its
map service for location-based searches and queries). However, Microsoft has stated that other search engine applications can be used. Aside from location-based searches, Bing Maps on Windows Phone 7 also provide
turn-by-turn navigation service to Windows Phone users, and Local Scout shows interest points such as attractions and restaurants in the nearby area. Bing Audio also allows the user to match a song with its name, while Bing Vision allows the user to read barcodes, QR codes, and tags.
Office suite The Office hub organizes all Microsoft Office apps and documents. Microsoft Office Mobile provides interoperability between Windows Phone and the desktop version of
Microsoft Office. Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile,
OneNote Mobile, and SharePoint Workspace Mobile allow most Microsoft Office file formats to be viewed and edited directly on a Windows Phone device. Microsoft Office can also open files from SkyDrive and Office 365, as well as files stored locally on the phone. Office files on Windows Phone 7 are sorted by tiles: Word documents (blue tile), Excel spreadsheets (green tile), PowerPoint presentations (red tile), and OneNote documents (purple tile).
Multitasking Windows Phone 7 features a card-based task switcher which can be accessed by pressing and holding the back button. The screenshots of last five open apps are shown as cards. Apps can be kept running even when out of view through "Live Agents".
Sync Zune software is used to manage and sync content on Windows Phone 7 devices with PCs. Windows Phone 7 can wirelessly sync with the software. In addition to accessing Windows Phone devices, Zune software can also access the
Zune Marketplace to purchase music, videos, and apps for Windows Phone and
Zune products. While music and videos are both stored locally on the PC and on the phone, apps are only stored on the phone even if purchased from the Zune software. Zune software is also used to deliver
software updates to all Windows Phone 7 devices. The Zune software is unavailable for
Mac OS X, but Microsoft has released Windows Phone Connector, which allows Windows Phone devices to sync with
iTunes and
iPhoto. This has since been succeeded by the
Windows Phone App, which is designed for Windows Phone 8 but can sync with Windows Phone 7 devices as well. ==Removed features==