You'll agree that recognition by the editor of a trusted brand holds a special significance, be it for a device or outstanding apps.
The Microsoft Store team selected the best apps in four categories: creativity, entertainment, social, and productivity. The editor chose these apps based on user experience, design excellence, app quality, and customer value.
If you're looking for the best entertainment and social experiences on Windows, we've featured the Microsoft Store editor's chosen entertainment and social apps here, and also the app that won special recognition. Read on and explore.
What Are the Microsoft Store App Awards?
To help shine a spotlight on what the Microsoft Store has to offer, the tech giant hosted an app award contest in May 2022. People could nominate their fave apps and Microsoft would pick out the cream of the crop.
These apps are the winners of that award ceremony in the entertainment and social categories, with a winner that got special recognition from the editor.
The Microsoft Editor's Special Recognition Winner: Talk for Me
Talk for Me is an empowering app that was designed to give those with a voice, a voice—and it has achieved to do that by enabling users who cannot speak to talk to their families and loved ones.
It has customizable sections like Food, People, Places, Entertainment, Phrases, and more. These sections and certain words are designed like tiles to help you or a loved one to string together sentences.
Plus the dedicated keyboard function enables you to type in a message and have the computer speak on your behalf.
As per the developer, several users that have PSP, CBD, ALS, survived strokes, or have Autism have benefited from Talk for Me. The app offers you all the features of other high-priced apps and it's free.
Download: Talk for Me (Free)
The Microsoft Store Editor's Choice Entertainment Apps
You'll agree that the edge-of-the-seat excitement of a blockbuster movie or a gripping web series is an unparalleled experience. And enjoying your favorite music and podcasts is uplifting.
Though many entertainment apps offer great video and audio content, the Microsoft Store editor zeroed in on these winners and deserving finalists.
Disney+: The Video Winner
This Editor's Choice Winner for Video Entertainment needs no introduction. Disney+ is the streaming home of your favorite stories.
It offers you unlimited entertainment and exclusive new originals from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic. As a subscriber, you might already be enjoying the latest releases, movies, classic films, and TV shows. Or downloading Originals like Loki, and fan favorites like Frozen and The Simpsons.
And while there's something for everyone, be sure to set up the Disney+ parental controls if you don't want your kids from seeing things they shouldn't.
Download: Disney+ ($7.99/month, in-app purchases available)
Hulu for Windows: Video Finalist
Hulu for Windows lets you stream everything you love. Available only in the US, Hulu is your gateway to thousands of shows and movies featuring current and classic TV, laugh-your-face-off TV, cry-your-eyes-out TV, and more.
There is some cool content that you will only find on Hulu, like Dopesick, Solar Opposites, and Murders in the Building Originals. And if you're an FX fan, you can enjoy over 50 highly acclaimed FX shows like A Teacher, American Horror Story, and Archer.
You can enjoy an ad-free experience with the Hulu Premium subscription or take the Hulu + Live TV subscription to get over 75 channels for live sports, news, and must-watch events. Though Hulu's plans will cost more from October 2022.
Download: Hulu for Windows (Free 30-day trial, $12.99/month)
Tubi: Video Finalist
Imagine watching thousands of hit movies, TV series, and anime at no cost. You can with Tubi, a free and 100% legal unlimited streaming service.
Enjoy your favorite shows whenever you want to and with fewer ads than on regular TV. Tubi offers you award-winning movies and highly rated TV series, comedies, kids shows, classics, and niche favorites such as Korean dramas, anime, and British series.
Tubi adds free HD shows and movies every week, so you’ll never run out of entertainment to stream on the go and at home.
Download: Tubi (Free)
Spotify: The Audio Winner
You probably know about Spotify and are using it to listen to your favorite music and podcasts.
One of the most popular music apps, Spotify lets you browse the charts or fire up readymade and customized playlists in every genre and mood. Or you can choose from thousands of original and popular video and audio podcasts.
If you want to learn how to get the most out of this app, check out our guide on how you can make Spotify sound better by tweaking its settings.
Download: Spotify (Free, in-app purchases available)
FluentCast: Audio Finalist
If you can't let a day go by without listening to new and favorite podcasts, you should check out FluentCast.
Designed for Windows 11, FluentCast, featuring the Fluent UI, is a beautiful, fast, responsive, free, and ad-free podcast app.
You can search for and browse the most popular iTunes podcasts and import and export your podcasts as OPML files. And with playback history, you can always start from where you left off.
FluentCast also lets you download any episode of any podcast to enjoy offline. Plus you can watch video podcasts in-app too, on full screen, or in Picture-in-Picture.
Download: FluentCast (Free)
Grover Pro: Audio Finalist
Grover Pro has been around for a while but it's still the best app to manage podcasts on Windows.
Grover Pro is fast at finding podcasts and gets you the full episodes list easily. You'll find the UI cool and also that you can use OneDrive to sync the app data across your devices.
This universal app for Windows features HD video and casting support. You can search and subscribe to podcasts using the search box, automatically remove the podcasts you've listened to, and also automatically download new podcasts.
Download: Grover Pro ($2.99)
Microsoft Store Editor's Choice Social Apps
You probably couldn't imagine life without fun chats with loved ones, video calls, and team meetings. Here are the winners and finalists of the Editor's Choice social apps, some that you would already be using every day.
Discord: The Social Winner
If you're a gamer, you would be familiar with Discord. But today, Discord is where you can make a home for your communities and friends.
Connect with schoolmates, start a community or server of your common interest with colleagues, or just spend time chatting over video, text, and voice with buddies.
You can search for and join the best servers that match your interests. Moreover, you can also join the server of your favorite band and get to know more about their life and music—and meet other fans too.
Discord has 150 million monthly active users, and four billion minutes of conversation happen on Discord each day.
Download: Discord (Free, in-app purchases available)
Telegram Desktop: Social Finalist
You should get Telegram Desktop if you want pure instant messaging, that is simple, fast, secure, and synced across all your devices. Yes, you can start typing on your Windows PC and finish the message from your phone.
With Telegram Desktop, your group chats can have up to 200,000 members, where you can share large videos and documents of any type up to 2 GB each. You can even set up bots for specific tasks.
It's a lot of fun too and you can edit photos and videos, use animated stickers and emojis, and fully customize the look of your app.
Telegram has over 700 million monthly active users and is one of the 10 most downloaded apps in the world.
Download: Telegram Desktop (Free)
WhatsApp Desktop: Social Finalist
According to Statista's statistics and facts as of 2022, WhatsApp is the most popular global mobile messenger app worldwide with approximately two billion monthly active users.
With WhatsApp Desktop, this popular chat experience comes to your Windows PC. You can seamlessly sync all of your chats to your computer so that you can chat on whatever device is most convenient for you.
Also, you can chat, and send and receive text, audio, and video files, even when your phone is offline.
Download: WhatsApp Desktop (Free)
Stay Entertained and Connected on Windows With the Best Apps
The best and proven apps offer quality, design excellence, and great value—just what you need to take your Windows experience to the next level. So try these Microsoft Store Editor's Choice apps to fill your world with unmatched entertainment and social adventures.