Microsoft Outlook For iOS And Android Arrives, It Looks Excellent

Microsoft Outlook For iOS And Android Arrives, It Looks Excellent

Today Microsoft MSFT +2.02% announced Outlook for iOS and a preview version for Android. iOS and Android devices already have calendar apps, but Microsoft said that the new Outlook app makes it easier to sort through your e-mail, contacts, calendar and file-sharing. The new Outlook app for iOS and Android phones and tablets are based on Accomplice, an app company that Microsoft acquired for over $200 million in December.

The Outlook app separates mail into two tabs — Focused and Other. The important e-mails will be placed in the Focused inbox. If you move your e-mail in or out of your Focused inbox, Outlook will start to learn which type of messages are important to you. Swiping left or right lets you take actions like archive, delete, move, flag and mark as read/unread. The swipe gestures can be personalized if you do not like the default settings, which gives the Outlook app a leg up above the competition. There is also a “Schedule Email” feature that temporarily removes e-mails from your inbox and returns at a time of your choosing.

Outlook App / Focused or Other folders, Credit: Microsoft

Microsoft’s new Outlook app has predictive search so that you can quickly find the right e-mails, files and contacts. The People feature in the app lets you see the contacts that you e-mail the most often. You will notice that a Microsoft e-mail account is not needed to use the app. These features work across all of the major e-mail services, including Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, Outlook.com, G mail, Apple AAPL +3.1% iCloud and Yahoo YAHOO -5.9%! Mail.

What I like about the Outlook app is the direct interaction between e-mails and the calendar app. Outlook lets you see meeting details and review the attendance status of invitees. There is a “Quick RSVP” feature that lets you respond to meetings with ‘Accept,’ ‘Tentative’ or ‘Decline’ without having to open the e-mail.

Calendar integration in Outlook / Credit: Microsoft

There is a “Send Availability” feature that lets you send out available meeting times. After deciding on a time, you can create a meeting invitation without leaving the app. You can send your schedule by tapping on the calendar icon at the bottom-right corner of the e-mail draft. The available times on your calendar can be highlighted and you can input a list into the body of your e-mails.

Another feature in the Outlook app that stands out is the ability to quickly share your files that are stored in the cloud. When writing e-mails through a mobile device, it is rather difficult to link to cloud documents and set up permissions for viewing files. Generally, people don’t share documents or attach files until they get back to their computers. The Outlook app automatically gives file permissions to the recipients of e-mails. Through a few taps, you can insert links to any file from Drop box, OneDrive, iCloud, Google GOOGL +0.07% Drive and Box .

Sharing files in the cloud through Outlook / Credit: Microsoft

If you want to find a file quickly, then you can view recently received e-mail attachments. This will save you time from having to search through your e-mails to find documents that you are looking for. Outlook searches through your files in cloud storage services and e-mail attachments at the same time so you can quickly find what you are looking for in the Files section of the app. There are also Quick Filters so that you can sort by file types.

On Android, Outlook is called “Preview” because the iOS version is ahead in terms of performance and features. The Outlook app requires iOS 8.0+ or Android 4.0+. Here is the list of languages that Microsoft said it supports: English, Norwegian (Bokmål), Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.

The new Outlook app replaces Microsoft’s Outlook.com app for Android and the OWA apps for Android and iOS. The older apps will be around for now, but they are likely going to be phased out as the Outlook app enhances. Microsoft said that they will be updating the Outlook app on a weekly basis so it will constantly improve. You can download the app on iTunes and Google Play now.