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Microsoft has today announced plans to bring a new design to its Outlook for Mac app along with several other improvements and features for Outlook on iOS and watchOS.

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In preparation for the public release of macOS Big Sur, Microsoft has been testing a new design for Outlook on Mac. The design includes Microsoft's Fluent icons and several design cues from Big Sur such as rounded corners. To make the design more simple, Microsoft's Ribbon interface has been removed. The end product is an amalgam of the design languages of Apple and Microsoft.

Reading and writing emails has been improved with the implementation of a new mail compose UI, single-line views, and an "ignore" feature. Collapsible panels and a compressible message list allow for greater customization of the main view.

Outlook's contacts system has also been tweaked, with separation of contacts and co-workers within events and emails, detection of frequent contacts, and a new feature to mark contacts as favorites. Calendar and search has been improved with groups and emphasis on relevance, and there is greater integration with Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft's sync technology from iOS, Android, and Windows Mail will also be coming to Outlook for Mac, resulting in much faster sync between platforms. Support for iCloud and IMAP accounts is also said to be coming soon. The update is set to arrive for all Mac users in mid-October.

Microsoft also announced a number of smaller updates to Outlook for iOS, including a new calendar widget to display upcoming meetings from multiple accounts on the home screen, emoji reactions, voice commands, and an expansion of Play My Emails to Canada, Australia, India, and the UK.

Apple Watch complications will be coming to Outlook for watchOS 7, allowing users to see their number of unread emails or calendar status. These additions to Outlook for iOS and watchOS are marked to arrive later this year.

Article Link: Microsoft Announces Outlook for Mac Redesign, Improvements to iOS and watchOS Apps
 

GeoStructural

macrumors 65816
Oct 8, 2016
1,151
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Colombia
It looks ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS. Hopefully they will bring this aesthetics to Windows as well.

the Outlook apps on iOS have been excellent for years now.

I also like the iOS version, I prefer it over the Gmail app which seems to be more battery hungry. With that said, I use the built-in Mail app now, it offers all I need.


I am a tech enthusiast, I have preferences, but I use Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Samsung products/services alike... There are some things Apple does better, others where it lacks behind, I am glad there is competition still going on, we are the most benefited parties in that fight.
 
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PeteBurgh

macrumors 6502
Jun 25, 2014
281
621
I’m not sure how I feel about this redesign from first glance - I'm sure it will take some getting used to.

But the Outlook apps on iOS have been excellent for years now. I spend hours in them everyday, and they are easily the best mail clients I've used, including Apple's own. Great to see Microsoft continuing to
improve them.
 
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jpbmd

macrumors newbie
Sep 3, 2008
5
1
I had been beta testing it until they stripped iCloud accessibility out of it. Still no definite timeline on when it will return, so that is painful. When it was originally working, the system was nice. The view is a definite improvement over the current Outlook for Mac.

Overall, Microsoft still doesn't want to play nice with iCloud. The calendar in Outlook for iOS still won't enable you to create or edit recurring iCloud appointments. Moreover, they don't show up properly at all.

It's incredibly frustrating that the two won't play nice together, especially for those of us who are required to use Outlook by their enterprise.
 

Maconplasma

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Sep 15, 2020
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Maybe if MicroSHAFT finally makes the Mac version 100% the same as the Windows version with all the same features and apps as what you get in the Windows version then I will take M$ seriously. Publisher and Access are Windows only yet the Mac customers have to pay the same price for 365. SMH.
 

RammyXX

macrumors regular
Nov 30, 2012
143
406
Wished Outlook for Mac supported HTML code for signatures. I can get HTML signatures to work in macOS Mail, but there's no way in Outlook.
 
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adrianlondon

macrumors 601
Nov 28, 2013
4,994
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If the MacOS and iOS versions have updates to allow email aliases (e.g. send from <anyname>@mydomain.com) then I'll switch. Depsite the minor flaws in notifications, the stock Apple apps handle this function well.
 

Maconplasma

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Sep 15, 2020
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That looks so much better, will look forward to giving it a shot soon.

Office for macOS has been getting better over the years, but it's still behind the Windows version... good to see Microsoft putting another solid effort in this time.

They've had many many many years to get it perfect for the Mac yet they've continued to provide a dumbed down, less feature rich and horrible UI...but hey they still charge the Mac customers the same price as the Windows customers who get a far better version of Office. I guess Mac users should feel "lucky" for paying the same price for a lesser experience.
 

suedehed

macrumors newbie
Oct 6, 2016
18
33
Merrick, NY
Oh sure.. they finally add the calendar view which the windows version has had forever.. and of course.. Im moving back to Notes today and can't use outlook anymore :(
 

anson42

Contributor
Mar 13, 2014
1,064
979
Oakland, CA
My company uses Office/Exchange but I have yet to ever actually run the native Outlook app since outlook.office.com became viable and works for my needs, and it's getting better all the time. It even has a well executed dark mode. For basic communications and calendaring, there really is no need to run the native app any more. For offline and advanced Outlook uses cases, I suppose it continues to be useful.

EDIT: I'm referring to desktop app. The Outlook mobile app is really fantastic and I would not use the browser experience on the phone.
 
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ghostface147

macrumors 601
May 28, 2008
4,150
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It has come a long long way since the early insider builds. They’ve really listened to consumer feedback. The current version of Outlook pops out a window to reply to an email where the new one doesn’t. You can click on the pop out icon to make it happen, but it’s not an option you can set. That kinda sucks. Also, when I do pop out that window, it shows in the old version of Outlook.

I also don’t have the ability to reply from a different inbox if I have multiple inboxes. I have to be in that mailbox to reply.
 

Okasian

macrumors regular
Sep 27, 2017
197
384
They've had many many many years to get it perfect for the Mac yet they've continued to provide a dumbed down, less feature rich and horrible UI...but hey they still charge the Mac customers the same price as the Windows customers who get a far better version of Office. I guess Mac users should feel "lucky" for paying the same price for a lesser experience.

It’s dumbed down, but I thought that was the appeal.

Do macOS users need 10+ different ribbon panels?

If they are an Office ‘power user’ then wouldn’t they just use Windows instead?

A massive oversimplification of course, but I can sort of see their rationale.
 
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