The New People Directory Search Experience in Outlook: Smarter, Faster, and More Connected Than Ever

Managing contacts has always been central to how we work - but the way we work has changed dramatically. Today, we're excited to unveil a completely reimagined People experience in Outlook that makes finding, organizing, and connecting with your contacts faster and smarter than ever before. Whether you're reaching out to a colleague across the globe or managing your most important business relationships, the new People in Outlook is designed to get you there in seconds, not minutes.

Instant People Directory Search: Find Anyone in Seconds

We’ve heard you loud and clear: navigating complex organizational trees and deeply nested directory hierarchies to find a single contact takes too long. So we built something better.

The new People in Outlook features a powerful, intelligent search experience that puts every contact at your fingertips - instantly. Simply start typing a name, location, job title, department, or even a personal note you’ve added, and People in Outlook surfaces the right person immediately. No more drilling through layers of org charts or scrolling through alphabetical lists. Just type, find, and connect.

Here’s what makes it work:

• Lightning-fast keyword search - Search across names, email addresses, job titles, locations, departments, and even your own notes and tags. A few keystrokes is all it takes.
• Smart suggestions - As you type, People in Outlook intelligently surfaces the most relevant matches based on your communication patterns and organizational context.
• One search, every contact source - Whether the person is in your organization’s directory, your personal contacts, or a linked account, search brings them all together in one unified result set.
• Instant action - Once you find who you’re looking for, you can email, call, or start a Teams chat directly from the search results - no extra clicks required.

This is contact discovery reimagined. What once required navigating through hierarchical trees and multiple clicks now happens in a single, fluid interaction. It’s the fastest way to find and connect with anyone in your world.

Find anyone instantly with intelligent search in People in Outlook

A Modern, Unified Contact Management Experience

Beyond these major innovations, the new People in Outlook brings a complete refresh to how you manage your contacts every day:

• Modern multi-column table view - See all your contacts at a glance with a clean, customizable table layout. Sort, filter, and scan your contacts faster than ever.
• Quick actions at your fingertips - Email, call, or chat with any contact directly from the contact list. No need to open a contact card first.
• Multi-select and bulk operations - Need to categorize, email, or manage multiple contacts at once? Select them all and take action in a single step.
• Categories for flexible organization - Organize your contacts with color-coded categories that work across Outlook. Tag contacts as “Key Clients,” “Project Team,” “Vendors,” or anything that fits your workflow.
• Import and export - Easily bring contacts in from CSV files or export your contact data whenever you need it.
• Consistent experience everywhere - Whether you’re using Outlook on the desktop, Outlook on the web, or Teams, the People experience is the same - modern, fast, and reliable.

The New People Experience. with a modern tabular layout brining a unified contact management experience

Built for Performance and Reliability

The new People in Outlook was built from the ground up with performance at its core. After extensive testing and feedback from thousands of users within Microsoft, we’ve delivered an experience that is not only feature-rich but also fast, stable, and reliable - even with large contact lists. Every interaction is designed to feel instant and responsive.

Get Started Today

The new People experience is currently available on the New Outlook for Desktop, and is rolling out now for  Outlook on the web for all Microsoft 365 users. To explore it:

1. Open Outlook and click the People icon on the left navigation rail.
2. Start searching for anyone - by name, title, location, or any keyword.
3. Explore your contacts in the new table view and try out quick actions.

We’re incredibly excited about what the new People in Outlook means for how you connect and collaborate. This is just the beginning - we have even more innovations in the pipeline that we can’t wait to share with you.

We’d love to hear from you! Share your feedback directly within Outlook by selecting Help > Feedback, or join the conversation in the Microsoft Tech Community.

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The People in Outlook team is committed to building the best contact management experience in the world - and we’re just getting started.