Microsoft announces release of Outlook app for iOS and Android

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Remember during the Windows 10 event last week when Microsoft showed off what the new universal Outlook Mail app would look like in the upcoming Windows 10 release?

Well in today’s announcement it appears Microsoft is not only looking to make your app experiences across Windows 10 familiar but that is extending that same concept to iOS and Android. This may be the first sign that Windows 10 will enjoy similar rich experiences that we see with other Microsoft services on iOS and Android and that in turn should make many Windows device (phone/desktop) users happy.

Back in December of last year Microsoft acquired Acompli, a company that had created mobile email apps for iOS and Android. It was their former CEO Javier Soltero, who is now the Program Manager for Outlook at Microsoft, who penned one of the blog posts concerning this announcement.

In our early discussions with Microsoft, we realized that the closer we could work together, the more value we can deliver over the course of those 24 seconds. There is extraordinary power and untapped potential across all of the Office 365 technologies, and we think an extremely compelling and beautiful e-mail app will provide one effective portal to tap into it. Since the acquisition, we’ve been working hard on integrating our team and development processes to ensure we’re able to continue rapidly delivering new features and functionality to our customers.

I would definitely say they have been working hard and fast because the acquisition was announced on 01 December 2014 and now the app is released just a little under two months later.

So let’s summarize some of the features and info of this app:

• Mail divided into two tabs – Focused and Other. Focused contains your important emails while less important emails are under Other. As you work with your mail and move things around Outlook learns what matters most to you and handles incoming email accordingly.


• One button newsletter unsubscribe.


• You can customize the swipe gestures to quickly look through your email and decide how you want to approach your inbox for immediate or later action.


• Email can be scheduled to return to your inbox at a later time and thus be temporarily clear of your more important items at any given time.


• Built in predictive search for locating emails, contacts, meetings, files shared.


• The Outlook app works with email accounts on Office 365, Exchange, Outlook.com, iCloud, Gmail and Yahoo! Mail.


• Meeting scheduling and calendar fully integrated.


• Attachments can be added to email from cloud storage services such as OneDrive, Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive and Box. Future support will be added for OneDrive for Business.


• This app replaces the Outlook Web Access app on iPhone, iPad and Android.


• Runs on iOS 8.0 and Android 4.0 or higher.


• Designed to accommodate use on either a tablet or phone.

That last bullet sounds a lot like universal apps doesn’t it?

Screenshots:

Outlook Mail App on iPhone

Outlook Mail App on iPad

Outlook Mail App on Android Phone

Outlook Mail App on Android Tablet

Addiitonal Resources and Information:

• A deeper look at Outlook for iOS and Android


• The future of mobile email—how much can you accomplish in 24 seconds?


• Outlook for iOS


• Outlook for Android

Stay tuned for a hands on review of the Outlook Mail app on Android as I will be installing it on a Galaxy S4 today and giving it a spin.