Microsoft to Replace Outlook for Mac With New Universal Client

[benroberts3]

My company exclusively uses Office 365 for all cloud-based productivity tools however, we are all issued Apple computers. I've been using the Office platform for Mac since 2015 and have seen quite a few changes over the years to modernize and bring it up to snuff with the Windows version of Outlook. While the native app is quite good, it doesn't even come close to the features offered in the web version of Outlook. My IT team doesn't even use native apps on their computers, they rely solely on the web version.

The future of desktop computing is web-based applications. Salesforce pioneered this with their "no software" mantra when they first launched. I'm all for apps on iPad and iPhone as they are incredibly powerful, but you have to constantly keep up with the updates from the App Store. With web-based apps, all updates (both security and feature set) are done server-side and seamlessly for the user.

 

[vagos]

I can't understand all that hate about the web ya all. Gmail is web+mobile only and it's a great experience.

 

[Internaut]

Not bothered whatever they do. All my mail is on the web anyway. In the case of Outlook, as long as Microsoft continues to support local PST files then most users shouldn't notice. When setting up Office on my M1 Air, I opted not to bother with Outlook at all.

 

[jicon]

We use Office 365 through work, and compared to the Windows 10 native app, I'm drawn back to the web version to get a lot done. I've got about 100GB worth of email in mailboxes, but it seems to cope just fine. No hiccups with the app becoming unresponsive, or suddenly requiring reauthentication using Microsoft Authenticator to get it working with my domain credentials every few weeks.

Microsoft has been pushing web add-ins for a number of years, and they really help ensure they work on any device. I just wonder if this is going to be the death knell of the app my company makes. We must have about a dozen minor releases every year, most clients upgrade servers once a year or two. Our Outlook and Word add ins require the version to be an exact match to the server to operate. The addins are also VSTO, meaning never working on the Mac version, or any web platform.

 

[velocityg4]

Web app though does not have as much functionality as Windows client. So Windows user may end up with less functionality unless web app dev has moved on by 2022 to accommodate those features as well.

It's been about 8 years since Settings came out with Windows 8. It still isn't anywhere close to parity with Control Panel in the latest Windows 10. So, I wouldn't hold my breath on Outlook web reaching parity with the desktop version anytime soon.

You'd think MS would have at least one person make a list of all features. In order to have their programmers and GUI builders implement them in replacement products.

 

[egrimo]

I would like to add some more opinions on this.
Microsoft had always different mindset on apps on both platforms. They tried Windows10 apps, that did not see an excellent support. They tried PWA apps like Outlook which always lack features that even non-work users could bare to use. Their Mac app is not great. Heck, even the new redesign lacks more features than adding ones. It's half baked(you can't add shared mailboxes, IMAP mails, show notes, tasks etc.) and now they basically said, "Well, we don't need devs for mobile windows android. We just fire them all, hire fewer people for electron app and save more even tho we probably won't change the subscription price and earn more from less"

Microsoft doesn't behave constantly. Sometimes we argued that Apple doesn't change things often and they change fundamentals very late, but as we see from this, we also kinda appreciate things staying same for a long time.

I loved using Inbox until Google killed it fairly quickly. I loved using Outlook on Mobile until I see the desktop version of Mac. I still can and am using Apple's Mail app since 2013 and it does not go away, change fundamental but yet, perfect on design simplicity and "still works". You may appreciate last word if you're an employee and use the same app for a long time.

People(except Excel hardcore users and Windows/android users) should really use Apple apps for business solutions(except mail, I WISH they could support business mails on iCloud...)

 

[kalafalas]

This is awful news. I LOVE the outlook redesign, one of the best native mac apps out there right now and I use it every day. PLEASE DO NOT REPLACE IT WITH A CRAPPY WEB APP like the abysmal state teams is in. I was hoping teams would get the “new outlook” treatment, not the other way around.

 

[eatrains]

Everyone saying this new Outlook will be Electron, much more likely it will be React Native.

 

[Maconplasma]

ok Apple now is your chance...please fix your mail app.

Please remain on topic. This is not about Apple. It's about Microsoft's typical crap.

 

[velocityg4]

I can't understand all that hate about the web ya all. Gmail is web+mobile only and it's a great experience.

While a nice product. I use it with Thunderbird on the desktop. It's much faster, less resource intensive and consistent than the web interface. I never liked web interfaces for email. Consistency and managing all email in one place is my preference. Plus no ads.

 

[MysticCow]

Plus no ads.

This one sentence perfectly explains WHY they're switching to web-based with a crap wrapper around the app to make it look like an app. It's all about the advertisements and ad revenue...and Apple can't stop it, maybe, if the ads are contained within the web app.

 

[Hastings101]

Not surprising, Microsoft has been chasing the "one app for all platforms" dream for about a decade now (albeit not very successfully), this will just be their latest attempt at it. If I were someone upset about this I would buy the last non-365 version of Office before this happens though as I imagine native Office apps will be gone in a few years. Personally I'm all for more and more platform agnostic approaches so long as they have feature parity.

 

[robertcoogan]

Eh....sounds like a bad move. It's going to suck to be a longtime Outlook user. MS lost me when they axed Entourage due to MS Project's concerns that it was stealing their thunder (what Entourage had was a great daily planner, not PMP software - not even close).

I still prefer to have a stand-alone client for email. Web apps are great - when they work - but there's something to be said for keeping it local.

 

[Maconplasma]

Not bothered whatever they do. All my mail is on the web anyway. In the case of Outlook, as long as Microsoft continues to support local PST files then most users shouldn't notice. When setting up Office on my M1 Air, I opted not to bother with Outlook at all.

While I can't speak for everyone I think some of the frustration here is Microsoft keeps making changes and often (including this time) they use the Mac as the test dummy. According to the article Microsoft wants to make everything cross platform.....good.....but the bad is they are doing this on the Mac first leaving the Windows version with a full desktop client until sometime in 2022. Once again this gives Windows users more of a benefit and Mac users have to adjust how they compute. That's not cross platform IMO. Anybody using Office over the years knows that Microsoft has never done anything in favor of the Mac but they are charging Mac customers just the same.

Also being web-based means people have to rely on an internet connection. That's not always possible or convenient when computing on the go.

 

[trigf]

Every time they try to fix this app, they make it worse and strip features from it. I've been getting the "New Outlook" prompt for months now, so I tried to toggle it on, and the first thing it said was, "Looks like you don't deserve to have any mailboxes anymore, so we're going to take away all your shared mailboxes if you opt in."

All we want is feature parity with Windows. How damn hard is that to understand?

 

[FNH15]

I’m forced to use MS apps at work, and I’m not looking forward to this change. Thankfully, by the time the native app is sunset I should be in med school, can switch to only using the Mac Mail app for Exchange, and not have to rely on the (middling at best) Outlook app. The “overhaul” is nothing more than a new skin of the existing app.
Electron apps / non native apps are awful, and are the reason why I refuse to use Spotify / MS Teams.

 

[mrz_V1]

Pretty disgusting if Microsoft thinks we want a web UI outlook. How about focus your time on the heavily fragmented windows 10 OS?

 

[Eorlas]

i still dont have the toggle to switch to the new outlook for mac and i'm running the latest versions...

 

[ervingv]

It would be nice if they'd make up their mind for once and not completely change Outlook every 2-3 years.

This is what they are doing now, merging all the different apps into one universal experience.

 

[itsamacthing]

mail.app and iCal

 

[ervingv]

Come on Microsoft... Apple is making it easy, put everything into the iPad app, which will please mobile users / C Level Execs, then just port that to the Mac. And with M1 ever increasing adoption, it'll be easier than ever.

lol this is what they are going to do, iOS and Mac apps will be the same.

 

[Suckfest 9001]

In other news, a drop of dew graced the leaf of a plant and a snail enjoyed a leisurely stroll across the tree bark.

Don’t care...

You clearly do since you took the time to recite that lovely poem. It might be more convincing going forward if you just let people use the apps they want without reminding them of your opinion

 

[Snowshiro]

This sounds like a terrible move that'll take away a rather performant app and replace it with some electron garbage. The only plus side being that could open itself to an easy Linux client.

I can understand why you would think that, but Outlook has never been that much of a performant app. I've been using the web app for about 6 months because my company doesn't like me connecting to the corporate network from home using regular outlook (no idea why) and it's smooth, fast and I like it way more than this big old clunker that is the desktop client. In fact these days, I have a tab open in Outlook calendar, a tab open in Email and a tab open in teams and I keep everything neatly in a single browser window. I love it.

 

[routine_analyst]

The new Outlook app is absolute trash. Buttons are placed all over the place that do nothing helpful.

One example of this is trying to create a meeting where you want to open a window and view a scheduler to see multiple peoples schedules. You used to click on the calendar tab and then hit New Meeting/Appointment. Now they have some basic Betty button at the top right that opens a popover with zero functionality in it.

After a few months of using this POS I toggled back to "old outlook".

 

[chrono1081]

I really hope it’s a native app based on the web app, not a nasty web app. Web apps are garbage and always will be because web was not originally designed to do what we’re doing with it.