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They obviously want to give us the same treatement that they gave us with Teams. A lousy messaging application that requires high perf GPU and 1GB of RAM, because "Chrome". WTF is wrong with native Cocoa UIs in Swift of Objective-C? Why on earth would you want to build such applications in a web browser? Do they find it cool to use 3 times as much RAM and CPU? Web applications are OK for applications that are not turned on 100% of the time. Considering that Apple keeps selling laptops with 8GB of RAM and sold laptops with as little as 4GB of RAM 3 years ago, there's no way this is a good idea.
 
Why is it so hard to make Outlook on Mac function like Outlook on Windows? No one wants this watered down web experience.
I'm not an Outlook power user by any means but I use it as part of my job every day and as a non-power user the online Outlook is more than enough. I much prefer the web experience over having to install the old native app, and have no interest in the updated one. YMMV and there are probably uses cases I don't have that require the native app, but I commend Microsoft for creating an online experience that more than suffices for many of us.
 
I could be possible they’re gonna use React Native. They’ve been working with the FB RN team since mid 2020 to share knowledge, specs, etc.
 
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".
I also tried the "new" app. There were a number of UX issues and I too switched back to the "old outlook". I also provided detailed actionable items for them to address. Switching to a web-wrapped app was NOT part of the recommendations. :)
 
Yep. Same as VSCode. It's a big bet on Electron, and it's not a bad play.

Now, imagine the Mac App Store certifying Electron apps *finally*. That's the real game-changer.
 
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It'll be an Electron app running the web client. You'll need an M1 with more than 8GB to run it.
Exactly. This is all about Microsoft's ease of cross-platform development and has nothing to do with ease of use or snappiness of the app.
 
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As an Outlook on Mac user for work I will for sure use a different email client, to me the web experience is horrible and the local app is really good.
 
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This Mac-centric discussion confirms a worry I have about the thick client Offices components on the Windows side.

Teams for Windows is leading the way in making the O365 cloud the preferred way to work with Office files, and it pushing its own web version of the Teams "app" if you run into troubles launching or loading Teams on a Windows 10 box.
 
How it will go:

  1. "Universal" app is tested on Mac first
  2. No feature parity with things like S/MIME, Universal Inbox, multiple accounts not supported, but "coming soon."
  3. Microsoft lays off Mac developers
  4. Enterprises realize they can't support their security model on Macs so they go back to requiring Windows for all users
  5. Microsoft chalks the move up as a "huge success."
 
Everyone is solving the universal space differently.

A web base client is better than a universal app that mus wait to get updates. The only disadvantage is an internet connection, or downtime, but that's a small percentage. Make everything online then you won't care about anything except the "browser needs to up to date"
 
Everyone is solving the universal space differently.

A web base client is better than a universal app that mus wait to get updates. The only disadvantage is an internet connection, or downtime, but that's a small percentage. Make everything online then you won't care about anything except the "browser needs to up to date"


Counterpoint: native apps are able to take advantage of the UI of the host OS, and forcing everything to the browser forces those who prefer to use Safari to use the much worse alternatives of Edge, Chrome, or Firefox.

At the end of the day, however, MSFT hardly cares about the Mac. Hopefully the iPad app gains a few more features so that it can be used on AS Macs as a fallback.
 
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".

Agreed. I have done the same. Two workflow issues for me:

1) They took away the "remove" option for attachments in Outlook email. This was an option in the "old" Outlook for Mac. I use it all the time when I want to save an email but don't need the attachment.
and
2) Creating meetings is more complicated. In "old" version I could easily see scheduling data when adding invitees to a meeting. Not so in the new version.

Too much focus on nice icons and rounded corners. Not enough focus on how people actually use it.

On this universal platform that is rumoured, I might actually be OK with it if they allow this type of previous functionality.
 
Not sure if this comment belongs here or on the "New Outlook" thread, but I've been experimenting with it because I was eager for mail & calendar in one app, as well as Outlook's generally slicker Scheduling Assistant. However, I'm surprised to find that Apple's Mail is much quicker and easier to use overall.
I have used Apple Mail and Calendar since 2007 and just switched to Outlook for Mac. I actually think it is much stronger than Mail for most features.
 
I wish we could do that. I would generally agree, but I think BusyCal runs laps around Mac Calendar. The Mac Mail app is completely sufficient, and some of their most underrated software.
 
I admit I was pretty excited at the seamless integration from iCloud to Outlook. It was all automatic until:
1) Outlook won't remember previously typed emails. You have to type a fresh email every time.
2) You can't change the "account settings". I can't find out where it is populated from but for my Name is shows my email. Frustrating because you can't get any help online.
 
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Why is it so hard to make Outlook on Mac function like Outlook on Windows? No one wants this watered down web experience.
Don’t worry. They’re foisting this garbage on Windows users too. Even enterprise customers will have the supreme joy of having their native client replaced by this garbage site inside a container.
 
As someone who almost exclusively use the web app of Outlook as it outperforms both Mac and Windows versions in terms of features and interoperability between other Office apps, I say it’s a good move. It makes distribution of new feature so easy for the developers and they can let go of all the legacy stuff expected from the desktop app.
It’s a horrible interface for power users. My organization is too cheap to buy a license for the Outlook client and I’m the one who suffers. It’s limited in rules, you can’t automate with macros, and it will be a resource hog especially trying to keep up with my >1gb of local email files. PWAs are better left as websites because it’s what they are. If you were receiving more than a thousand messages a day and you actually needed a powerful email tool, this isn’t it. I know most folks don’t need it. Outlook the email client is designed to be useful for the basic email user, but it’s purpose is to help those users who need a professional grade tool.
 
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