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Does BlinkFeed on the HTC One look a little familiar?

posted on Feb 19th 2013 by

Today HTC announced their new flagship Android phone, the One. As the name suggests this phone is meant to be “The One” for consumers. It has almost everything you might imagine, plus a lot more. One of the features that HTC is talking a lot about is BlinkFeed. This is a dedicated page on the homescreen that displays live information from several sources. It does this with tile-like widgets in a magazine style layout.

Does this look remind anyone else of something? Perhaps a certain UI that we are familiar with? Yes, it looks a lot like live tiles and Windows 8. The glance-and-go information idea has been a core part of Windows Phone for several years, and now it’s in Windows 8 too. HTC, and other OEMs, have been borrowing heavily from the idea in recent years. Unfortunately Windows Phone isn’t doing well enough for anyone to know where the ideas came from.

What do you think? Has HTC stolen from Windows Phone?


  • I’m surprised this hasn’t been talked about more! Really looks like a windows phone influenced skin to me.

  • Maybe…but HTC also makes Windows Phones, so in a way they are just stealing from themselves, right?

  • It’s sort of the catch-22 for the idea that this is theft of design.
    In a sense, it isn’t really the same as the Modern WP8 interface. It’s still fairly skeumorphic as Android (and more dramatically, iOS) has been, so this is more of a hybridization. I don’t like the full pictures and video on my Start Screen, anyway; I prefer monochromatic tiles with a white symbol, and anything that doesn’t fit that bill, such as Snes8x or SkyMotion, stay in the app list.

  • Also, the API has been given to developers to incorporate their own apps in the BlinkFeed, making it even MORE like Windows Phone.

    I mean, it’s a great Windows Phone feature — I ain’t even gonna hate. :p

  • HTC has taken the idea from Windows 8 but, you got to expect that. HTC won’t be the last. Others will follow. Like Ubuntu. All new OSes from now on will have some Windows 8 Live tile concept / element somewhere. It just goes to show that static icons with the dreaded rounded corners are so 2007. Apple’s iOS takes another step towards irrelevance. Microsoft and Windows 8 will rule once again. it’s inevitable!! MWhah!! Hah! Hah!

  • Sondre Krumsvik

    It might resemble wp, but the live tiles are just sharp edged widgets.