14 DAY TRIAL // The Windows Insider program has helped Microsoft build Windows 10 and the first major OS updates, and now the company is looking into ways to refine the operating system with deeper insights from highly-focused groups of users running preview builds.
Codenamed Cohorts, this new program is supposed to help Microsoft receive more focused feedback from select groups of users that are specifically interested in particular OS features, which would otherwise be less appealing to general insiders.
This means that Microsoft is looking into ways to obtain more than generic feedback on Windows 10, and Cohorts would be specifically supposed to try out features that most of the users wouldn’t.
More focused feedback on specific Windows 10 features
The experiment is still in its early days, and WindowsCentral writes that at this point there are such groups for Fluent Design, Insider MPVs, and features for “creators,” like illustrators and graphic designers. All these Cohorts are currently invite-based and only select insiders have been picked to participate, but Microsoft wants to expand them in the future to cover more Windows 10 features.
This new approach has already generated controversy around Microsoft’s feedback program, as some consider that by focusing on select groups of users, the company wants to ignore suggestions and reports coming from general users.
Microsoft, however, says the intention isn’t to replace this feedback, but to complement it, so while the operating system will still be improved using feedback from all insiders, certain features will receive deeper refinements thanks to suggestions provided by Cohorts.
The Cohorts program is expected to gain more traction for the upcoming releases of Windows 10 – the next on the roadmap is Redstone 4, which is projected to be finalized next month before being released to all users in April. Work on Redstone 5 has already started, and the launch is due in the fall of the year.