Microsoft is carrying on the crusade of making its apps ready for Windows 11, with Outlook also seeing a refresh that’s being prepared for a preview release.
The email app has been in many forms since it was bought by Microsoft in 1997 for an estimated $400 million. Dubbed ‘Project Monarch’, this new Outlook is seen as a reboot of what came before, and how users are going to manage their email across Windows 10 and Windows 11.
Nowadays, there’s plenty of ways that you can access your home and work email, through a web browser or your smartphone, and there’s many mail apps available, which is why Microsoft thinks it's time for another iteration of Outlook.
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The unification of Mail
Similar to Snipping Tool and Snip and Sketch, Microsoft has a habit of releasing more than one app that achieves the same function, and Mail is yet another example.
On Windows 8 and above, you can use an app called Windows Mail, which houses a design that’s reminiscent of the Metro user interface that Microsoft was pushing across many apps in 2012. However, you can also go to your Microsoft 365 account and access your mail through Outlook, or download an application called Outlook as well.
In the May 2021 update for Office Insiders, the new design for Outlook was shown inadvertently, with a user interface that looks reminiscent of the new Paint app in Windows 11.
One Outlook on two Windows
This is part of the new ‘One Outlook’ project that Microsoft is working on - finally consolidating the Mail apps into one unified application that can manage your mail across Windows 10 and Windows 11, without another mail app being installed and potentially confusing matters.
It makes sense for the new Outlook to be released on both Windows 10 and 11, as mail is a primary reason for why many users have a PC in their office. To have the same design on both operating systems could also entice some to upgrade to Windows 11, knowing that they won’t have to teach themselves how to use another Mail app.
Since the days of MSN Hotmail and Windows Live, Microsoft has had a great opportunity here to build upon the success of Outlook, as its app on both Android and iOS has been highly received. It’s able to manage different email accounts with ease, while giving users a lot of customization in deleting emails, creating folders and much more. The new Outlook should build upon this in Windows 10 and Windows 11, and leave Windows Mail in the dust as a relic of Windows 8.
While this new One Outlook isn’t available as yet, it’s most likely that it will be as we approach the release of Windows 11, rumored to be in October.
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Via Windows Latest
