Now that Windows 10 Redstone 3 development is in full swing, we're starting to see the first glimpses of new features showing up in the latest compiled builds. Today, we're able to give you an early look at an upcoming feature called My People, hidden inside the latest Insider Preview build of Windows 10.
My People was actually unveiled by Microsoft last year, with the intention of it showing up alongside the Creators Update. Unfortunately, due to time constraints Microsoft decided to cut the feature and wait for Redstone 3 before implementing it. So now, with the latest Redstone 3 build, we can see My People is finally working.
So what's it do? Right now, not much. It's a feature still in development, which explains why the user interface and other elements are still pretty rough. For what's currently working though, it functions surprisingly well. The setup experience is pretty straightforward, with a "Get Started" button that takes you to a screen that connects you to your installed social apps such as Mail, People and Skype.
Connecting the People app will give you quick access to all the contacts stored in your address book, and will also allow you to pin them to the taskbar. The pinned contact icon acts similarly to how a normal app icon on the taskbar does, with a right-click menu giving you the option to unpin the contact if you wish. Clicking the contact icon will open up a window with quick links to whatever social apps that contact is apart of.
In our case, "James" is linked up to both Mail and the People app. Clicking the People tile will list our contacts details, including his phone number, email address and more. Clicking the Mail app will show us conversations between us and James, with the added ability of being able to compose an email directly from the My People UI.
So far, the My People experience is pretty basic, but as Redstone 3 progesses I'm sure we'll start to see other features implemented such as being able to drag and drop a file onto a pinned contact to share it, UI improvements, and more. The feature will also be much more useful when/if other services integrate with it, such as GroupMe, WhatsApp and so on.
We expect Microsoft will enable My People officially for Insiders in the next few weeks, so for now, enjoy this early preview.
