The Windows Phone is one of the biggest “what-ifs” in tech. While they weren’t universally loved, they were a unique proposition at a time when the smartphone market was still developing and innovating, and their tile-based interface has a cult following.
While it’s impractical for most people to use a Windows Phone in 2025, you can still revisit the iconic Windows 8-inspired tile interface with the help of an Android launcher, dropping you neatly back into 2014 but with all the mod-cons of a modern smartphone.
Bring back the squares
Which Windows Phone launcher should you use?
Credit: Gavin Phillips / MakeUseOf
There are a couple of good options available when it comes to recreating Windows Phone on your Android smartphone.
For the most faithful recreation of Windows Phone, you’ll want to use Launcher10. It’s super customizable and very responsive, and I enjoyed how easy it was to move apps, change sizes, and create a vision of Windows Phone.
However, I found that Launcher10 would crash without warning, and sometimes my apps would disappear, changing my layout or just being generally unavailable, which was frustrating.
In that, I ended up switching to Square Home, which doesn’t deliver quite the same like-for-like experience as Launcher10, but I didn’t encounter any stability issues while using. Given how much time I spend using my phone each day, stability is more important than the overall looks.
Bring Windows Phone back to life with this app
Customize to your hearts content
Switching to a Windows Phone-style launcher is actually a really different experience from how I normally arrange my home screen. I typically opt for a completely clean aesthetic, using just the bottom icons, along with Swiftly Switch for easy access to my most used apps (Slack, Spotify, Wallet, Maps, and so on).
Other than the stability, Square Home is just so easy to use. I found it incredibly simple to move tiles, customize sizes, adjust colors, and get stuck into the launcher’s extensive customization options without any guidance. One of the Windows Phone’s best features was the easy app tile size adjustments, and Square Home delivers. It’s not quite the same as Windows Phone, but I like how simple it feels.
Credit: Gavin Phillips / MakeUseOf
The visual customizations are great, too. I like that you can switch between colors, transparency, and more—but a little more on this in a moment.
You do have to make some decisions, mind. Placing and adjusting your tiles becomes a delicate balance between information and easy access versus overload and bloat. It’s a fine line. What helps is that Square Home actually has one of the best features from Windows Phone: Live Tiles.
With Live Tiles enabled on specific apps, you can see information at a glance, similar to how Windows Phone worked. So, if you enable it for Gmail, you’ll get snippets of your emails.
Turns out, I wanted something different again
Colorful tiles are nice, but how about something better?
Color customization helped Windows Phone stand out. Assigning different colors to each tile is a fun process and opens up some real customization, but it’s not for everyone. Turns out that in the years since using a Windows Phone and becoming more accustomed to a more stripped-back home page, the colorful tiles weren’t one hundred percent what I wanted.
But Square Home deals with that, too. Setting a background, then turning the tiles transparent, creates a blurred effect that’s a mixture of the two, dare I say, a little in the style of Liquid Glass. So if you want a mixture of Windows Phone and iOS 26, Square Home is the Android launcher you’ve been looking for.
It’s ad-free and easy to use
Pay for premium, but only if you want
Now, let’s talk cost: there isn’t one. Square Home is free for anyone. But what makes it great is that in spite of this, it doesn’t bombard you with adverts to pay for that privilege.
Its premium features are available for 14 days free after installation, but after that point, it’s only a couple of dollars per year. Or, you can drop six bucks to pay for a lifetime license that unlocks every premium feature. Even on the About page, Square Home is relaxed and doesn’t throw a “buy me now” notification. In a world where many apps are determined to make you upgrade, this is refreshing.
The extra functionality in Live Tiles, media overlay, detailed customization options, and gestures are part of the premium package. As said, you get 14 days to try this out, but really, a couple of dollars for a year of all these features is fantastic value.
This is my new favorite Android launcher
I’ve spent a few days using Square Home as my Android launcher on my Nothing Phone 3, and I’m suitably impressed. I only used Windows Phone for around six months, so I’m not a hardcore Live Tiles fan like some. But the ability to customize Square Home and make it feel like I’ve been using it for years within around half an hour is fantastic and really how all overhaul launchers should be.
It also looks great on a foldable. I installed Square Home on my Honor Fold V5, and it looks great. It’s actually one of the best solutions for home page apps I’ve found for the larger screen, as the tiles fill the space, and the near endless customization is perfect for making the most of the space.
