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Mobile Outlook iOS Users Get Add-In Apps
Microsoft announced today that new add-in applications are available for Apple iOS users of Microsoft's Mobile Outlook e-mail client.
The add-ins are HTML- and JavaScript-built applications, both from Microsoft and from other software developers. Outlook iOS users now have access to add-ins from Evernote, Giphy, Nimble, Smartsheet and Trello, along with the Microsoft Dynamics 365 add-in and the Microsoft Translator add-in.
Office 365 subscribers can get these add-ins today. Users of Outlook on the Web (Outlook.com) may or may not have access because Microsoft is doing a gradual rollout to those users.
The iOS add-in applications work from within the Mobile Outlook interface. They just work when reading e-mails right now, though.
"Add-ins for Outlook on iOS are currently only available when reading email," Microsoft's announcement clarified. "We'll be adding more add-in actions when composing or replying to an email in the future."
The announcement signaled broader platform support for the Office add-in model. Windows and Outlook.com clients already have add-in support for the Mobile Outlook client, but support on Apple's operating systems is emerging, and support for Android devices will be coming later.
"Up till now, Outlook add-ins have been available to Outlook users on the web and Windows, and we've recently expanded add-in support to Outlook for Mac as part of the Office Insider program," Microsoft explained in an Office Dev Center announcement. We're now excited to bring add-ins to Outlook mobile, starting with Outlook on IOS, with support for Android coming soon."
The Microsoft Dynamics 365 add-in for iOS devices lets end users look up the records of their customer contacts from within the Mobile Outlook client when they get an e-mail, without having to switch to Dynamics 365. Incidentally, there are also separate "Dynamics 365 App for Outlook" products that have greater feature support than the "Mobile Outlook on the Web" version. Those differences are shown in a table in this TechNet article.
The Microsoft Translator add-in for iOS devices lets users translate e-mail messages from within the Mobile Outlook client. The Evernote add-in lets users clip e-mail text into a notebook. Giphy provides access to animated GIFs for insertion in e-mails. Nimble provides access to customer relationship management-type information from within an e-mail. Smartsheet lets users create task lists from an e-mail. The Trello add-in enables users to create action items.
About the Author
Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.