Forum Discussion
Outlook App on phone not showing colors for categories
Can someone tell me if the Outlook phone app is capable of displaying the colors set up for categories in the calendar? We have numerous teams using resource calendars and color coding the appointments with a different color for each person. They are complaining that they don't see the colors in the Outlook App on their phone. I tested this on my Android phone and don't see any colors. The user that submitted the complaint has an iPhone. I am having difficulty finding out from googling whether this feature is available in the Outlook phone app or not because the results just keep coming up for Outlook not the Outlook phone app. And if it is available, is it available for both Android & iOS or only one of those?
32 Replies
With nearly 40,000 view to your question, MargaretAuldLouie, I would think that Microsoft would take a look at the problem. I color code clients and find it annoying when I cannot do that on my phone to clear by inbox and categorize the emails when I have a free time.
- I have 4.2113.1 on my Android Phone running Android Version 9 (Pie) and I see the color categories on my phone calendar, but I cannot set or change a color category.
One thing that is very annoying is that if I use the Samsung native calendar app, and make any changes to a calendar entry that has a color category, it will not sync the entry back to Office 365 and subsequently to other devices in my universe. This creates a real issue, because if I update the same entry on my Outlook for Windows Desktop App, it completely overwrites the calendar entry that I previously updated using the Samsung Native App.
There are times when I need to use the Samsung native calendar app, and this lack of sync has messed me up several times. - I can see color coded calendar entries on my Android tablet but not on my Android phone.
Appointment details on tablet show the category, on phone this information is missing. On both devices Outlook version is 4.2111.2.
Intended behavior?
Any suggestions?- Meanwhile my Android app got upated to 4.2113.1 and now I can see color coded entries on the phone as well.
kgiesel I see categories for calendar entries, but not for emails.
- The Outlook app on Android will show category colours if you add them using the main Outlook app on your PC (& presumably the web versions too). However, you'll only see the entries in colour if you select the "Month" view in the Android app (Calendar, top right). The "Agenda/Day/3 Day" options don't yet support the colour coding!
The only color coding I see in the month view is for different calendars, not for different categories within one calendar.
Am I correct?
Thanks,
Chris
- I have Outlook 2016 on my PC with Color coded categories Categories that I use across Tasks & Calendar. All Calendar entries are color coded and in Outlook 2016 appear in all Calendar views. In Outlook Mobile, on Android, the color coding only gets reflected in the "Month" view. It may be you need a Microsoft365 account for the functionality to work on mobile. Mobile for M365 accounts seems to have some additional functionality.
- Word on the street is that it's launching in Q3 of FY2021 :
https://www.xda-developers.com/microsoft-outlook-android-tests-email-categories-floating-action-menu/- I am wondering about the same. Given that my platform of choice is my iPad Pro and company policies are deployed via Intune Company Portal, I’m bound to Outlook app. The absence of ability to categorize appointments is very disappointing, same as inability to set default calendar notifications to 10 mins and default scheduling option to start meetings 5 or 10 mins after the whole hour.
You can if you use the online version. Go in your browser to outlook calendar, from there you can add the calendar to home on your phone. Find the calendar icon and login from online not to the app. There you can color code from - more options - categories. You can not add this as a widget, only the app.
But at least you can color code in your phone 😄
- To assign a color category to a message from the message list, right-click the message. Select Categorize, then select a category from the list. Tip: If you right-click the message and you only see options to flag the message, try right-clicking in the blank space to the right of the sender's name.
- The only app I have found that has a calendar widget and can read categories is Nine for Android. I really wish that the Outlook app had this capability.
- Nine mail works fine also on iOS, I prefer it.
End of 2023, and we still don't have categories on Android mobile (I don't know for IOS). Please Microsoft, do something.
- I've had this same problem in the past. And it recently has become a problem again since I logged in using a new profile. I would also love an answer if anyone out there knows of one!
marerose when working with an exchange online account your labels will be shown in the Outlook app for iOS, however you can't apply them.
So for viewing and changing them I would advise the mobile view.
This was tested with an exchange online account. When working with exchange on premises this behaviour is different I noticed 😞
