Microsoft started rolling out the new Outlook for Windows in September, after over a year of testing. It’s still not a full replacement for the classic Outlook app, or the Windows 10 Mail and Calendar apps it’s directly replacing, but Microsoft has now shared which features are in development.
The new Outlook for Windows is based on the Outlook.com web app, which gives it a more modern design and improved account synchronization compared to the classic Outlook mail client or the Windows 10-era Mail and Calendar apps. However, since it’s a newer codebase, Microsoft hasn’t reimplemented everything from its older email applications.
Microsoft has published a blog post with a list of updates in development for the new Outlook, after receiving “many questions about features that are coming to the new app.” Microsoft Copilot, the AI assistant that was announced for Outlook and other Microsoft 365 apps back in March, is still in the works. Offline support is also in development, which seems like it should have been there from the start, as well as dragging and dropping emails and attachments to the desktop. POP3 account support, folder reordering, a dedicated Outbox folder, and a “Save as” option for attachments is also in development. The full list of confirmed features from the blog post is embedded below.
Features in development for Outlook
- Auto capitalization
- Collapsible headers in the message list
- Conditional formatting
- Copilot
- Drag and drop emails and attachments to the desktop
- Dictation
- Preserve declined meetings
- EML file support
- File tab in Outlook search
- Folder reordering
- Inking (Draw tab) while composing an email
- MSG file support
- Offline support
- Outbox folder
- Picture formatting
- POP3 account support
- PST file support
- Message Recall
- S/MIME
- Save as for attachments (choose folder to save to)
- Share local files from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
- Shared calendar notifications for work accounts
- Teams tab in search
The improvements might help the new app’s popularity, which appears to be shaky. The Microsoft Store listing for the new Outlook is at 3.5 stars out of 5, with complaints in reviews about managing multiple accounts, login errors, performance, and the forced integration with Microsoft account servers.
Microsoft said in September that there’s still not a firm timeline for when the new Outlook will replace the legacy Windows Outlook email client. There’s always Thunderbird, too.
Source: Microsoft
