Outlook.com—out of preview and better than ever
The Outlook team is on a mission to bring you the best email and calendar experience—at work, at home—across all your favorite devices. In recent months, we made several updates to our desktop and mobile apps, launching Outlook 2016and delivering a steady stream of updates to our iOS, Android and Windows 10 apps. Today, we are announcing an important milestone for Outlook.com.
The new version of Outlook.com is now out of preview! We’d like to thank all of the users who gave us feedback during the preview period, as we fine-tuned and refined the new Outlook.com infrastructure powered by Office 365. Now we’re taking the preview label off and rolling out the new experience to users worldwide.
What does this mean for you?
- If you’re not an Outlook.com user yet, sign up today to get the new version in the North American region—and soon in other parts of the world. We’re confident you will love it.
- If you are currently using Outlook.com, you’ll get these upgrades soon. With the preview phase complete, we are rolling out the new experience to millions of users each week. You do not need to take any action to get the upgrade, and all your settings and data will be automatically transferred.
Now, let’s take a deeper look at the new Outlook.com, which provides a business-class email experience to help you collaborate effortlessly, focus on what matters and get more done.
A premium Outlook experience, powered by Office 365
The new Outlook.com is built on an Office 365-based infrastructure, so you get the benefits of an email service that millions of businesses, governments and schools around the world rely on every day. In today’s digital world, the security of your personal information is vital, and this move to a new platform gives your email and calendar data, enhanced security and reliability.
Additionally, Outlook.com users also get access to many of the powerful features loved by users in Office 365. Recently added features, like the ability to automatically add flight confirmations to your calendar to stay on top of your travel schedule and a smarter address book that understands who you talk to the most, are now available in the new Outlook.com.
The experience for users connecting to Outlook.com from the Outlook apps for Windows or Mac is also greatly improved with this move to a new platform. Setting Automatic Replies, toggling flags and syncing categories, inbox rules and drafts are now available, providing a great Outlook experience whether you prefer to work in an app or on the web. Outlook on Windows now supports Outlook.com email aliases, while Outlook for Mac can now sync calendar and contact information.
By bringing Outlook.com onto the Office 365 platform, the speed and consistency at which we deliver features and experiences across the entire Outlook family will continue to increase.
Collaborate effortlessly on documents and files
We often receive attachments in email containing things like to-do lists, travel itineraries or monthly budgets. Managing edits in an attachment can be an arduous multi-step process, especially in other email services that don’t work well with Office documents. Outlook.com is deeply integrated with Office, with a new side-by-side editing feature designed to simplify this process. You can now view or edit Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents and photos while simultaneously replying to the original message.
Many of us are on email conversations where we need to add new people to the conversation. If there is a photo or other attachment shared on the original conversation, we often forget to re-attach it for the new person who was just added. Outlook.com has the perfect solution! Now, when you add someone new, you get a prompt asking if you want to re-attach the most recent photo/other file to the conversation.
In addition, as announced in late January, users of the new Outlook.com can attach files from Dropbox and Box right from their inboxes (to complement the existing OneDrive integration) and they have the option to send these files easily with links rather than as attachments.
Get more done using partner add-ins (and take advantage of great promotions from our partners)
Outlook.com is built to help you quickly get more done. That is why we continue to integrate with other popular apps and services. Today, we are thrilled to announce GIPHY as our latest add-in partner for Outlook. GIPHY helps you add fun and flair to your emails using the world’s largest GIF library. Additionally, the Yelp and Wunderlist add-ins announced earlier this year are also now live in the Office Store! These add-ins join our great partners like Uber, PayPal, Evernote andBoomerang in providing you the tools you need to get things done.
As an Outlook user, take advantage of some great partner promotions running now.
- If you’re a new Uber user, you can get $20 off your first ride when using the Uber Outlook add-in. After you get the ride reminder, just enter the code “OutlookLove” in the Uber mobile app to get the discount for your first ride (valid in US only).
- Boomerang users can use the service to streamline scheduling and track responses to emails free for the first six months!
All of these add-ins are live in the Office Store and are available to Outlook.com, as well as to Office 365 users using Outlook 2013, Outlook 2016 or Outlook on the web. Let’s take a look at some of the partner add-ins launching today.
GIPHY
Make your emails fun and expressive by adding GIFs from GIPHY, the world’s largest and most powerful GIF library—without leaving your Outlook inbox. You can use GIFs to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries, congratulate people on achievements, give thanks to friends and family and more!
Yelp
Planning your weekend dinner or shopping experience? Use the Yelp add-in in Outlook to quickly find and suggest great restaurants, shopping destinations and other local businesses. The add-in provides Yelp pictures, reviews and contact information and inserts these details directly into the body of your message or meeting invite.
Check for more == Here ==
