Editor's note 8/15/24 - Updated "New Outlook Availability Timeline" image (image 1)
Editor's note 8/8/24 - An update was made in Key Updates to clarify the support timeline for classic Outlook in subscription licenses.

 

We are excited to announce the new Outlook for Windows is now generally available for commercial customers and will now receive full support from Microsoft's support channels, including Assisted Support! The new Outlook for Windows combines rich productivity features and the latest innovations: Enjoy a familiar, more productive, and seamless way to work.

 

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. 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. By September 2023, it was made generally available for personal accounts.

 

Thank you for your continued support and feedback. We are excited to reach this milestone and look forward to your ongoing feedback to make the new Outlook the best email experience for you and your organization.

 

With this update, we are not changing any settings for you or your organization. New Outlook is still an opt-in experience, so it’s ready for you when you are. See our migration timeline to help with your planning.

 

Image shows the next milestones and phases for the new Outlook 

Enjoy a familiar, more productive, and seamless way to work

Built for today and designed for the future, the new Outlook for Windows combines rich productivity features and the latest innovations like Microsoft Copilot, to help users draft emails, summarize conversations, and receive coaching to more effectively get their messages across. Customers are already embracing these new tools, where we continue to see growing usage.

 

Designed to be familiar and reliable
We’ve taken the familiarity and reliability of classic Outlook and improved it with a modern architecture that reduces device-resource consumption and drastically shortens the time required to deliver fixes and new capabilities to just weeks. This helps you spend less time resolving issues thanks to automatic updates that apply as soon as Outlook is opened.

Video showing the new Outlook for Windows design and features

Built for innovation to help you achieve more
With innovation at its core and the integration of new AI features like Copilot, the new Outlook empowers you to get more done and effortlessly stay on top of things. 

 

Features like suggested text and suggested replies help you deal with emails faster while the most up-to-date Copilot capabilities can assist with writing better emails, breaking writer’s block, and summarizing your emails so you can go through your inbox faster.

Ask Copilot to draft an email or summarize recent emails
  
Effortlessly stay on top of things by dragging emails to My Day to turn them into tasks, pinning a message so it stays at the top of your inbox, and RSVPing to a meeting invite with “Follow” when you can’t attend but want to stay in the loop. You can also keep your inbox free of clutter by automating how Outlook triages messages using Sweep and rules.

 

From the meeting invite, select Follow to stay updated on any outcomes

Improvements to make your work seamless
We’ve taken the familiarity and reliability of classic Outlook and reimagined it with modern enhancements to integrate seamlessly with Microsoft Teams, Loop, OneDrive, and other Microsoft 365 products.

 

Reduce back and forth emails, document version tracking, and context switching with real-time collaboration using Microsoft Loop which syncs the content across apps like Outlook and Teams. Start a Loop component in the new Outlook, share it through email or Teams and content is updated in real time.

 

Image showing how several people can collaborate in real time with new Outlook and Loop

Search and attach files from OneDrive without switching apps just by typing “/” to see suggested files and files you recently worked on.

Type / when composing a message in the new Outlook to see suggested files

 

In the new Outlook, planning to work remotely or in the office is a little easier. You can set up your working hours and location, so your colleagues know when and where you plan to work and when they set theirs, you can see which teammates plan to be in the office to connect and collaborate with your team.

Outlook helps you plan when to be in the office to connect and collaborate with your team

Getting users ready

There are plenty of new features in the new Outlook. Below is a list of useful resources to explore and learn more.

• Get started with the new Outlook
• Here are 3 options to start using the new Outlook –
  • Turn on Try the new Outlook toggle in the classic Outlook app. This option is available with the desktop version of Outlook for Microsoft 365.
  • Download the new Outlook from the Microsoft Store.
  • Use the pre-installed version of new Outlook on new devices running Windows 11 PC version 23H2, or when you upgrade to Windows 11 version 23H2 or later. Learn what this means.
• If your account doesn’t show up automatically, you can add an email account.
• Watch our short instructional videos to learn more about the newest features
  • Pin emails to the top of your inbox
  • Schedule emails for when you want them delivered
  • Use Sweep and rules to keep your inbox clutter free
• Learn more about Copilot in Outlook
• Explore the differences between classic and new Outlook for Windows

Benefits for organizations

Whether you're someone who needs to communicate, coordinate, and collaborate effectively, or an IT manager in an organization who wants to optimize costs and performance, the new Outlook has something for you.

• Financial benefits of deploying the new Outlook for Windows
  A 2024 commissioned Total Economic Impact™ study conducted by Forrester Consulting, part of an independent third-party research firm, determined that operating the new Outlook is more cost effective than classic Outlook; surveyed customers expect the new Outlook to reduce support tickets up to 65%, and reduce energy and storage costs by 27%. The study also found time invested in policy management by up to 60% for the composite organization based on interviewed customers.
  
  “[New Outlook creates] significant time savings that can be repurposed for other work, [allowing us] to do more strategic thinking.”
  -Director of infrastructure and application management, consumer goods
  
  

  Over three years, the projected benefits exceed the costs of implementation by up to 3 times. 

For more information on benefits and costs please see the links below:

o   New Outlook adoption site

o   Download the infographic with key details on the financial benefits of the new Outlook

o   Download the full study

You can also create a customized financial benefits report for your own organization in this interactive site.

• Faster deployment of features and fixes
  The new Outlook consumes less device resources and uses a shared code, common architecture and service to accelerate innovation, deployment, and bug fixes down to a few weeks. Additionally, deployment happens simultaneously across Windows and web keeping users up to date and on the most secure builds automatically.

• Consistent behavior
  One experience across Windows in desktop and web reduces support calls, policy management, and training costs - To estimate the financial benefits of the new Outlook in your organization, you can customize this interactive study to your organization, download the full report, or read the highlights in this infographic.

For more information on getting your organization ready for the new Outlook for Windows, please see the new Outlook adoption site for an outline of benefits, download the migration kit, read the latest FAQ, and much more. A list of available resources can be found here.

Getting organizations ready

Key updates:

• There are no configuration changes for any organization at this time. This announcement is not an advance-notice of any significant changes for the next milestone. Rest assured, any controls or blocks your organization has enabled will continue to be honored. For more information about controlling the release see https://aka.ms/newOutlookControlRelease
• The new Outlook for Windows will now receive full support from Microsoft’s support channels, including Assisted Support.
• The app name for the classic Outlook for Windows will be appended with “(classic)” starting from version 2407.
• Existing installations of classic Outlook through perpetual and subscription licensing will continue to be supported until at least 2029. For more information about the availability of classic Outlook for Windows, see https://aka.ms/newOutlookTimeline
• New features will debut in the Targeted Release ring and remain there for 30 days before going into General Availability release (Standard Release). If users are already part of Targeted Release, new Outlook will honor that. For more information on how updates for new Outlook work, please read this support article.
• For migration resources, FAQs, and sample templates to help with migration planning, review the migration kit found here: https://aka.ms/newOutlookAdoption
• For a helpful list of all resources and documentation, see https://aka.ms/newOutlookResources 

This GA milestone will enable more organizations to start their migration process. We will continue to make feature improvements and monitor feedback, so continue to try the new experience and let us know what you want to see next!

You can find the feedback option under the Help tab in the ribbon.

 

We are excited to be in this journey with you.

Thanks!

 

Margie

 

*Microsoft Copilot features require a Copilot license – Learn more here.