Inching closer! Microsoft is making good progress on its One Outlook unification strategy that it is carrying under the codename of Project Monarch. And the company took another step forward here.
After a leaked version of this new app made its way out earlier this year, the software titan kicked off a preview for select Office Insiders. That apparently went smooth enough that the company has decided to make it available for all that are enrolled in the program.
The company announced the news in a blog post that also went into a deep dive of what’s new.
And there is a ton of new additions to go with the functionalities that were announced back in May when the app first went live.
Microsoft makes it clear right off the bat that the new Outlook app is designed to provide a modern yet familiar interface that is consistent across platforms. This is evident not only in the user interface of the experience but also its feature set.
For starters, this latest release now fully supports personal Microsoft accounts via Outlook.com, Hotmail, and Windows Live email IDs.
Then you have a new feature called “Quick Steps” that Microsoft claims offers you personalized recommendations that you can take action upon to keep your inbox clean and organized. It shows you personalized triage actions in this regard.
Another neat UI enhancement is the ability to resize column widths dynamically on the Outlook calendar.
Simplified Ribbon options are also in to make navigation menus appear more sleek and easier to use.
Finally, we have a handy option that lets you see tips about new features as they become available. These tips will also be offered in the calendar board view to assist you in planning your day better and outline your schedule in one place.
Moving forward, Microsoft plans to support multiple email accounts, third-party providers, visual and personalization options, offline usage, searching folders, as well as support for web addons and native ICS file types.
In other words, all the good stuff is in development and coming soon.
You can enable the new Outlook experience by clicking on the “Try the New Outlook” toggle in the top-right corner of the Outlook app, which can also be used to revert back to the classic experience.
The system requirements and availability details are listed in the post.
