Gallery: Groove Music App

Earlier this week Microsoft announced that they were dropping the Xbox prefix from their music app and that the app and music service would be renamed Groove.

The name is being recycled from an acquisition Microsoft made back in 2005 of Ray Ozzie's Groove Networks. That company was for a file collaboration service that ultimately became SharePoint Workspace and had nothing to do with digital music or streaming.

It turns out there is also a popular iOS and Windows Store app called Groove that has been around since 2009 from a Canadian company called Zikera which could result in some naming issues along the line of the entire Metro​ UI and App fiasco Microsoft found themselves in shortly after the release of Windows 8.

Even this new app update for Windows 10 creates further naming confusion as we have been told the service is simply called Groove yet the app is labeled as Groove Music.

Naming confusion aside we were not expecting to see the new branding on the app until the next Windows Insider Preview build  which is expected sometime this week.  However, an app update has been pushed to the Windows Store in Windows 10 Build 10162 that introduces the rebranded services app.

The overall functionality of the Groove music app has not changed from when it was called Xbox Music although The Digital Lifestyle points out that the Explorer and Radio sections are missing on the mobile version of the app.

As you can see in these screenshots they are still present in the desktop version.