(Originally published on May 13, 2024 by Nina Arjarasumpun)
Hi, Microsoft 365 Insiders! My name is Nina Arjarasumpun and I'm a Principal Product Manager on the Outlook team. I'm excited to share with you several improvements we have made to protect you from dangerous, suspicious, and unwanted mail, and build increased trust in Outlook.
Improvements to tackle spam in Outlook
Spam emails are unwanted or unsolicited messages that wind up in your inbox. They may come from companies who are simply trying to advertise their products or services. Some spam messages are known as phishing mails and attempt to steal your information by appearing to come from a credible source, like your bank or credit card company.
Let’s take a closer look at the improvements we have made to help protect you from these threats.
Secure Handling of Delivered Mail
Our goal with these changes is to help you safely make decisions about potentially dangerous or suspicious mail.
Showing sender email addresses in the Junk message list
By showing the sender email address next to the sender name in the Junk folder message list, we aim to save you time in investigating whether the mail is legitimate or not, especially if the sender name seems familiar, without opening it or hovering over the name.
Junk Email folder
Availability: This improvement is available to all Consumer and Enterprise users of Outlook on the web, new Outlook for Windows, new Outlook for Mac, Outlook for iOS, and Outlook for Android.
Warning before visiting links in the Junk folder
When reviewing the contents of messages in the Junk folder, you are warned about clicking on any links they contain, in case you are investigating a potentially suspicious email.
Junk Email Security alert
Availability: This improvement is available to all Consumer and Enterprise users of Outlook on the web, New Outlook for Windows, Outlook for iOS, and Outlook for Android.
Simultaneously report and block or unsubscribe
When reporting a message as junk or phishing, you can now also block or unsubscribe so that you no longer receive emails from that sender.
Report junk and Report phishing alerts
NOTE: Previously, you would occasionally continue to receive emails from that sender since reporting the message did not block or unsubscribe you from that sender.
Availability: This improvement is available to all Consumer users of Outlook on the web and New Outlook for Windows users, and will be coming soon to Outlook for iOS and Outlook for Android.
High Volume Mail Management
Our goal with this change is to help you manage and organize the mail that clutters your inbox.
Unsubscribe suggestions
You can now easily unsubscribe from unwanted messages from a particular sender and declutter your inbox by taking advantage of two unsubscribe suggestions.
Unsubscribe
NOTE: For those who are using Focused Inbox, the unsubscribe suggestions will appear for messages in the Other tab.
Availability: This improvement is available to all Consumer users of Outlook on the web and New Outlook for Windows.
Unverified (spoofed) sender warning
An unverified sender warning has been added to the reading pane and message list to notify you that a sender may not be who they appear to be or may be spoofed. In the warning, we give you the option to delete the message.
Unverified (spoofed) sender warning
Availability: This improvement is rolling out to all Outlook on the web and New Outlook for Windows users next month, and will be coming soon to Outlook for iOS, Outlook for Android, and New Outlook for Mac users.
Feedback
We'd love to hear from you! Share your thoughts by selecting Help > Feedback and use #SpamImprovements in your comments so we can quickly identify feedback about these improvements.
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