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New Outlook for Windows Now Available for Orgs
Microsoft's latest facelift of Outlook is now generally available for commercial accounts.
The company announced the extended release on Thursday and said the latest version of its email client "combines rich productivity features and the latest innovations." New Outlook has been available for personal accounts since September 2023, and this is the first time organizations can use Microsoft's new experience. Microsoft said the gap in release has helped refine the product for business users.
"The evolution of the new Outlook for Windows is a collaborative effort, shaped by the voices, experiences and feedback of tens of millions of people who use it across work and personal accounts," wrote Microsoft's Margie Clinton, in a blog post announcing the extended general availability. "In May 2022, we introduced the preview of the new Outlook for Windows, embarking on a mission to deliver the best email experience for our modern needs."
New Outlook's biggest new feature, aside from a redesigned client, is the inclusion of Copilot AI, which can assist in summarizing emails and drafting replies. It also comes with new integration hooks with Microsoft Teams, Loop, OneDrive, and other Microsoft 365 products. Real-time collaboration with Microsoft Loop minimizes email back-and-forth and reduces context switching. Users can search and attach files from OneDrive directly within Outlook and set up working hours and locations.
Microsoft is also touting the cost-saving benefits for organizations by switching to the new Outlook experience. According to a 2024 Forrester economic report Microsoft pointed to, the new Outlook is more cost-effective than the classic version, potentially reducing support tickets by up to 65 percent and energy and storage costs by 27 percent. The study also indicated significant time savings in policy management.
Organizations looking to migrate can do so by downloading Microsoft's migration kit here.
While the new Outlook comes with a laundry list of small tweaks and changes, some of these are not for the better. Redmond.com's Brien Posey wrote last month about a handful of annoyances found in the consumer version that have made their way into the commercial release, including removing the ability to drag and drop email attachments and how emails automatically open with a single click, instead of a double click.
Microsoft will continue to solicit feedback on the new Outlook, and said it is committed to making changes based on community response.