Minimize email drafts in Outlook for Android and iOS to easily task switch

Hi, Insiders! My name is Beth Jester, and I’m a Product Manager on the Outlook team. I’m excited to share with you an improvement to Outlook for Android and iOS that will allow you to more easily get the information you need when drafting an email.

Minimize email drafts in Outlook for Android and iOS to easily task switch

Picture this: You’re writing an email on your phone, and you realize you need a link from another email, or a date you can’t remember from your calendar, or the name of someone from an earlier thread. In the past, you would have had to save the draft you were working on and exit it to gather this information, then go to your drafts folder to retrieve it later.

Now, you can minimize your draft to a handy area in Outlook! Once you’re ready to work on your draft again, simply open it and keep writing – no more disappearing it from view.

This new feature promotes:

• Seamless task management: You can easily switch between composing an email and referencing other emails or calendar events without losing your progress.
• Increased efficiency: You will save time and reduce mental overhead with the ability to quickly return to email drafts when needed.
• An enhanced user experience: Email composition on mobile is now more intuitive and less disruptive.

How it works

1. Open up a new or existing email draft in Outlook on your phone or tablet.
2. The Minimize button will appear in the top-right corner of your screen as you compose the email. Select it when you want to dock your email draft and return to it later.
3. You can reenter the draft by selecting the entry point in the Mail or Calendar tab of the Outlook app.

Keep working with minimal interruption!

Availability

This feature is available to Android Beta users running version 4.2447.0 or later of the app, and iOS TestFlight users running version 4.2449.0 or later. This feature is beginning to roll out to production users.

Features are released over time to ensure things are working smoothly. We highlight features that you may not have because they’re slowly releasing to larger numbers of Insiders. Sometimes, we remove elements to further improve them based on your feedback. Though this is rare, we also reserve the option to pull a feature entirely out of the product, even if you, as an Insider, have had the opportunity to try it.

Feedback

We’d love to know what you think of this feature! Send us your feedback by going to Settings > Help & Feedback > Send Feedback in the Outlook for Android and iOS apps. Please use the hashtag #MinimizeMyDraft in your comments so we can quickly identify feedback about this feature.

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