Forum Discussion
Outlook for iOS/Android App Availability for Government
There is a reason for the confusion around this. Some already touched on in this thread. MS does not have consistent messaging nor consistent behavior.
The service description states the app is not supported. It does not say it can't work, just not supported. That also means of course it has not been certified to meet the various compliance requirements of the services and applications running from the GCC. My assumption here is that is because of the Azure piece, that most likely only runs from the commercial Azure datacenters.
The FAQ for Outlook app ( https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt465746(v=exchg.150).aspx ) - there is an entry on using with Government Subscriptions, near the top of the list in fact. The only limitation states that accounts you add to it must be in the same region. Which is odd - since GCC datacenters are only in the US (as far as I'm aware).
Behavior seems to be inconsistent. I can confirm that in some cases Government Subscription users can use the Outlook app with no issues. I know of multiple instances where it's used with no problems. But I've seen various reports like this thread where some users can't use it at all. Where it does work, you have to keep in mind the official position as stated in the service description.
- Out of curiosity, those people using the Outlook app and have a Government Subscription to Office 365, do their emails end in .gov?
- Hi Shane, there are many government agencies (with .gov domains) that assessed the security and compliance stance of Outlook for iOS and Android and determined that it meets their requirements. So, yes, some of the people have emails that end in .gov.
I can setup an Office 365 Government Exchange account with no issue in many of the email apps on either iOS or Android. What makes Outlook for iOS/Android so special that as a government tenant it refuses?
The other apps authenticate to the same servers that Outlook for iOS/Android do. The other apps access the same calendar, mailbox, contacts, etc. that Outlook for iOS/Android do.
Sorry, but I find all the endlessly regurgitated excuses ridiculous. Even my users are seeing through the smoke screens put out by Microsoft and agree that is a ridiculous situation where we can't use any Microsoft authored mail apps on our mobile devices to attach to our government tenants.
It's the same reason why Teams is not available for the U.S. Government sovereign cloud: not all of the necessary components (in this case, some Azure components) are available in that cloud, so any application that depends on those components is unavailable.
I called about this over the last week...there response in this link (close to the bottom)
Not supported yet.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt774581.aspx
