New blog articles in Outlook

Developer preview of AMP for email in Outlook.com

Aimee_Sudeck — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 16:30:00 GMT

In March, we announced that we would have a preview to support AMP for email in Outlook.com by summer. Today, we are happy to announce that we have entered the developer preview phase. Support for the format has been rolled out but it is turned off by default. Any email sender interested in trying their AMP emails in Outlook.com can turn it on for their mailbox for testing purposes.

Additionally, senders can register now to send AMP emails to their customers in the near future.

To learn more, visit the Microsoft Outlook Dev Center.

Outlook.com now supports groups

Aimee_Sudeck — Thu, 29 Aug 2019 20:56:25 GMT

You can use groups on Outlook.com to create a shared distribution list and access a group inbox with archived emails, shared files, and a group calendar. Groups allows you to connect, coordinate, and contribute to a shared purpose, all in one place.

Outlook.com service users can create and manage a group, while anyone with an email address can participate, including users with a Gmail or Yahoo email address. To create a group, sign in to your Outlook.com account and in the left-hand panel under “Groups”, select “New Group”.

We are rolling this out worldwide on Outlook.com and expect all users to have access by the end of August 2019 with expanded support to create a group in mobile in Fall of 2019.

To learn more, visit our support page.

Outlook mobile is rolling out Dark Mode and exemplifies Microsoft 365 Design

Eugenie Burrage — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 16:08:25 GMT

Today we are starting to roll out dark mode in Outlook for iOS and Android. For added comfort or when a bright screen may not be appropriate, we’re bringing people the choice and flexibility to adapt their experience with a simple and powerful Microsoft 365 Dark Theme experience.

Outlook for Android and iOS

Adapting to work life flow, Outlook focuses its design on the context of where people want to use Dark Mode. When asked, people found the experience comfortable and aesthetically pleasing while keeping their email and calendar content crisp and clear. This way, Outlook helps you stay connected and organized so you can get things done wherever you are such as dimly lit living rooms, home offices or airplanes.

This experience is in keeping with other modern apps that aim to ease viewing and reduce eye strain. And, to help optimize battery life, once iOS and Android devices support dark themes*, Outlook plans to automatically switch to Dark Mode based on their device settings in addition to Outlook in-app options.

It’ll take several weeks to complete the full roll out of Dark Mode in Outlook for iOS or Android worldwide. Download the app today and keep your app up to date so once it’s available to you, you can share feedback with us by visiting Outlook.UserVoice. To learn more about the Microsoft 365 cross-company design approach to Dark Mode, refer to this article in Medium by Jon Friedman, corporate vice president of design and research at Microsoft.

*When iOS 13 and Android Q are available, Outlook is planning to automatically switch to dark theme based on those settings

Room booking just became easier in Outlook on the web

Gabriel Valdez Malpartida — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 15:55:00 GMT

How often have you tried to find rooms that are available for your meeting's time, your recurring series, have the capacity and resources you need, and are close to you? Probably enough to acknowledge it can be a bit time consuming, especially if you are creating a recurring event or trying to book multiple rooms in different cities.

To help you with this, we are releasing features that make it easier to find the room with the characteristics you need. We also have new features to help you manage your meetings!

Easily browse rooms

For those times when you need to find rooms in multiple cities, you can now search for rooms beyond the ones we show you. Just click on the location bar, and then go to “Browse more rooms”, this opens a right-side panel where you can search for a room by building and city.

Browse rooms by city and see what capacity each room has

Find rooms with specific characteristics

There are meetings that need specific resources like audio and video capabilities, a specific capacity, or a projector. Now to help you find what you need, you can filter for rooms based on capacity, features, and floor.

Browse more rooms to find the one you need

Book multiple rooms

Not everyone in your meeting works in the same building or even the same city. For those meetings when your team is spread across the world, Outlook lets you book multiple rooms so you can make sure everyone has a good spot for that important call. To do this, go to “Browse more rooms” and search by city, then add the rooms you need.

Search rooms per city and add the ones you need

Invite optional attendees

You can now add optional attendees faster, directly from the meeting form. Just click on “Optional” and a new “Invite optional attendees” box will open, no need to go to the Scheduling Assistant.

Adding optional attendees is now easier, right from the meeting form

Some of these capabilities need to be set up by the organization's administrator. If you want to learn how to set up the options shown in the browse rooms panel, you can learn how here.

Online meetings get more options

You likely create or attend several online meetings during your workday, so we want to make your online meeting experience as streamlined as possible – This means options on how to create your meetings, easily join an online meeting, and quickly check how many people are attending the meeting.

Create an online meeting with Teams or Skype for Business
We’ve updated our backend to more closely reflect your organization’s online meeting policies. Depending on what services you are enabled for, you will see 1 of 3 options: i) A drop down menu to “Add online meeting” where you can select between a Teams or Skype for Business meeting, ii) a toggle to create a Skype meeting or iii) a toggle to create a Teams meeting.

Go to Add online meeting to select your provider
Join an online meeting from the event peek
Joining an online meeting from the calendar should be easy. And now it is, just go to the meeting event and you can join in one click right from the event peek.

Join an online meeting right from the event peek
See attendees’ responses to a meeting
You can now easily see who is attending a meeting and see everyone’s response too. We’ve added a quick summary in the event peek and if you go into the full meeting invite you’ll see attendees grouped by their response. If you use the event peek, you can see attendees’ responses if the meeting has less than 3 people or a summary of responses if there are more.

See attendees’ responses in the event peek

Invite only who you want in group calendars

Sometimes, you want to create an event in a group calendar but do not need to invite everyone in the group. With this update you will be able to:

Create events without inviting anyone, like a reminder or a milestone for the group
Create “brownbag style” events where you can have some required attendees and other people in the group can add themselves to the event if they want to attend too
Invite the group and anyone else.

Learn more about invitations in group calendars in this post.

Most of the features are already available to Office and Microsoft 365 users and the remaining ones will be rolling out in the next couple of weeks. For some features to show up, the organization's administrator has to set up the room features. To learn how to do this, please read this.

We would love to know if these features help you plan and manage your meetings or if finding the right rooms is now easier for you.

Please, tell us what you think in our UserVoice channel or using the in-product smile feature.

Thank you!

Gabriel.

Five time-saving Outlook mobile tips for small businesses

Rachel Raisin — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 15:42:06 GMT

If you work in a small business, you’re always on the move and juggling many tasks, which can make it challenging to stay on top of all you need to do. Outlook mobile is here to help! It brings together everything you need to manage your day in one place – your emails, calendar, contacts, documents, and more – so you can stay organized and get things done quickly.

Here are five time-saving Outlook mobile tips tailored specially for you, small business rock stars!

Tip 1: Morning triage made easy with one swipe

It’s Monday morning, and you’re running between meetings with just a few minutes to spare. You open your inbox to find emails that range from urgent customer requests to invoice approvals you’d rather follow up on later.

Outlook mobile helps you quickly schedule emails that you’d prefer to tackle at a different time. Simply swipe right on your email to schedule it to appear at a more convenient time in your inbox – this afternoon, Tuesday morning, or in a week. You can even swipe to archive, flag or delete a message, and customize these actions in settings.

Tip 2: Share available times, quickly, based on your preferences

You may often receive requests to meet with potential customers or partners, but finding the best time to meet can be an arduous process with numerous back and forth emails.

Outlook mobile makes it easy to share preferred meeting timeslots in a snap. When composing an email, tap the calendar icon above the keyboard. Then, select times on your calendar that work best for you, and Outlook mobile will package these up into a tidy email. If the person you’re coordinating with also uses Outlook, they can simply select the time slot that works for them.

Tip 3: Grab their attention using “@”

You might find yourself sending multiple follow-up emails to set action items after meetings or get someone’s attention to an important business.

To make your follow-up email more actionable and easily noticed, simply type @ followed by the person’s name. Outlook will automatically highlight their name in the message body and add them to the "To" line. Plus, when they receive your email, the @mentioned messages will be easily spotted in their inbox so they can quickly see messages that require action.

Tip 4: Quickly scan business cards to create Outlook contacts

Whether you’re attending a conference or networking with partners, you never know when you’ll meet someone who could help you grow your business. It’s important to make sure you capture their contact information in a safe place.

With integrated Office Lens technology in Outlook, you can easily scan business cards and save them right in Outlook with just a few steps. Tap Search, select “Create +” in the top right corner. From here, you can take a picture of the business card, and Outlook for Android intelligently takes the contact details from the card and saves it in Outlook! The business card scanning capability is currently only available for Android users, but Office Lens technology for taking photos and capturing whiteboards and documents is available on both Outlook for iOS and Android.

Tip 5: Stay a step ahead when Outlook helps anticipate your needs

With so many demands on your time, it can sometimes be challenging to stay on top of everything – whether it’s upcoming travel, package delivery, or finding that sales spreadsheet buried in your email.

Outlook can help simplify your life by automatically adding any upcoming travel and other events, like dinners or concerts, right to your calendar, and will even remind you when to check in to your flight.

What’s more, when you tap Search, your upcoming travel and package deliveries, most frequent contacts, and recently shared documents appear front and center, even before you type a keyword query.

We hope these tips help you stay on top of your day with ease and get things done quickly. You can also view more tips and videos.

If you don’t have Outlook for iOS or Android, we hope you’ll give it a try! Download it now at Get.Outlookmobile.

To share feedback, please visit Outlook.UserVoice.

If you need help with any of these tips, go to Settings > Help & Feedback > FAQs.

Manage Authentication Sessions in Outlook on the web with Azure AD Conditional Access

David Los — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 16:53:10 GMT

About a year ago, we announced Conditional Access for Outlook on the web. This provided administrators a way to ensure they are protecting their corporate data from leaking onto shared and personally owned devices. We appreciate all the feedback we received and continue to work closely with the Azure AD team to invest in ways to further protect your data.

From the feedback, it was clear that one of the areas in which we could make things better was when customers have a desire or need to adjust the session lifetime of their apps and services. A few weeks ago, Azure AD announced the public preview of capabilities which are a part of Azure AD Conditional Access.

Authentication Session Management allows you to control the frequency at which your users are required to enter their credentials. By default, the session lifetime to a rolling window of 90 days. We understand that this setting may not be desired by everyone, and some will ultimately need to decrease this value. However, it is important to keep in mind that decreasing the value to very short intervals does have a great impact to your user experience and productivity.

An additional benefit with the Authentication Session Management work is that you will get the ability to configure fine grained controls that will allow you to create policies that target specific users or use cases. For example, you can create a policy that has a shorter session time for unmanaged or shared devices, while keeping a longer session time for compliant devices. This will allow you to balance your security stance as well as ensuring your users are staying productive.

Configuring authentication sessions for your organization

To get started, login to the Azure AD portal and navigate over to the Conditional Access section. You can now create a new policy and you will see some additional Session Controls.

Sign-in frequency controls how often users get prompted to sign in. Sign-in frequency can be set from 1 hour to 365 days.

Persistent browser session controls when users can remain signed in after closing . The two settings are “always persist”, or “never persist”. In both cases, you’ll be making the decision on behalf of all of your users and they will no longer see the “Stay signed in?” prompt.

For additional information about authentication Session Management please check out our support docs.

We are all very excited to roll out these new feature enhancements to everyone! We also look forward to hearing any feedback and suggestions for further improvements you would like to see in the future!

Preview how Outlook for Windows is updating Shared Calendars

Eugenie Burrage — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 04:25:38 GMT

Microsoft is continuing to invest in Outlook for Windows calendar capabilities to assist customers in managing their time and connecting with people who help them achieve more. We are introducing an opportunity for Office 365 customers to preview new shared calendar capabilities aimed at improving the speed and reliability of how they sync.

We are excited to bring you these changes and are eager to get your feedback before we update the default shared calendar experience. If you are a delegate on someone else’s calendar, if you manage a shared calendar for a conference room, we want your feedback!

Watch this short instructional video to learn how to opt in, learn about the updates we are rolling out and what you need to know.

Faster & more reliable sync

We’re improving how we synchronize changes you make on a shared calendar to the calendar owner and to everyone else who views that calendar.

For example, if you’re a delegate for your manager’s calendar, you can be confident that the shared calendar meetings and appointments you see in your Outlook calendar matches what your manager sees on their calendar.

You can also be confident that new meetings or updated meetings will make it into your manager’s calendar before any other attendees receive the meeting invitations. In the past, changes could take a long time to reach the manager’s calendar, and sometimes the manager’s and attendees’ calendars would get out of sync. Now, the meeting request is sent to attendees’ mailboxes after the meeting reaches your manager’s calendar, so everyone has the same meeting details. Moreover, you’ll notice viewing and editing shared calendar events is as fast as managing your own calendar!

Additional changes

There are some changes you’ll notice in the preview of the updated shared calendar experience since it’s somewhat different from your previous Outlook calendar experience.

When you are the organizer of a meeting in a shared calendar – for example, on behalf of your manager:

You will be able to extend or end a recurring series, and it won’t impact the exceptions for that meeting that occurred in the past.
Outlook will automatically send updates to only those attendees you changed on a meeting list.
If you are drafting a meeting, it will not auto-save it to your Drafts folder, use the Save button or Ctrl-S instead. It will save as a draft meeting in your manager’s shared calendar.

If you’re an event or meeting attendee or a recipient of a shared calendar event:

When you choose “Do Not Send a Response,” Outlook does not send a response in an email, but the organizer and other attendees in Office 365 will see your response in the Tracking status.

When forwarding a meeting to a new attendee with attachments, you can’t attach additional files. The new attendees will be able to view all existing attachments when they receive the forwarded meeting.

We appreciate hearing about what you think of the updated experience so please opt-in to try it out and then use shared calendars as you do today.

Opt-in to try it out

After opting in, you’ll see (preview) appended to the calendar name for each shared calendar and know that the improvements are enabled in your Outlook for Windows.

It’s important to note that opting into this preview does not impact your experience with your core calendar and you can opt out of the preview at any time.

How do I send feedback?

We would like to hear your feedback about your experience using the updated shared calendar. Please send us your feedback through the in app help>feedback option if you need customer support or to report issues. Please send questions or high-level feedback to olk-calendar-preview@microsoft.com.

By trying it out and sharing your feedback, you’re helping us learn more about how these updates can improve Outlook – thank you! In a few months, based on your feedback, we plan to roll out these updates to shared calendar and make it the default experience. If you'd like more technical details about the changes, you can learn more here: aka.ms/calendarsharing.

Faster, with a modern design, and new features – the new Outlook on the web is here

Gabriel Valdez Malpartida — Wed, 03 Jul 2019 16:58:00 GMT

During Ignite last year we announced an opt-in experience so you could try the new Outlook on the web, give us feedback, and help us shape the changes in one of the most used productivity apps in the world. To those who tried the new experience during this opt-in period and submitted feedback and suggestions, thank you!

During the last 8 months, thanks to you, we’ve made many improvements throughout the product and today we are excited to announce the new Outlook on the web is ready.

We are humbled by the millions of people who depend on Outlook every day to connect with others, organize their days, and get things done. Let’s look at some of the main features.

Email is the heart of Outlook and where people spend a significant part of their day. We have designed the new mail experience around you and the people that are important to you – You can personalize your experience, have a little fun, do things faster, and keep those people front and center with new and updated features:

Outlook for Windows rolls out its simplified user experience

Eugenie Burrage — Thu, 30 May 2019 04:16:09 GMT

Outlook for Windows has evolved through multiple generations of improvements to create a user experience aimed at making it easier for you to get things done and focus on what matters. Now, after rounds of validation and refinement through customer research and the Coming Soon preview feature, the updates to the user experience are rolling out as the default experience.

Customer informed updates

Many elements of the user experience have been in progress for over two years, undergoing research and design iteration. Available as a preview through Coming Soon for the last several months, we’ve given you a chance to try the new updates on your own time and provide feedback. This has been invaluable in helping us refine the experience.

Do these changes make Outlook better? Almost half a million users responded, with over three-quarters saying “yes,” often with further written comments and high praise for the simpler, cleaner, more modern design. Based on your feedback, we updated the entire canvas to bring you a powerful and simplified experience. These updates are now moving out of a preview mode (through Coming Soon) and are rolling out as the default experience to all Office 365 Monthly Channel subscribers in the coming days. Below is a more detailed description of the changes.

Customizable options

Based on user research, we learned that many of our customers enjoyed the smaller command-set on the toolbar to simplify the experience and reduce distraction. The optional, Simplified Ribbon provides a streamlined experience for Outlook with a core set of most commonly used commands in a single line and can be easily expanded anytime to the full, classic ribbon.

Figure 1 - Simplified Ribbon

Figure 2 - Classic ribbon

However, the “right” set of commands varies by user and work style; what may be a daily used feature for one user might never be used by another user. We made the Simplified Ribbon customizable so you can quickly personalize it by simply pinning and unpinning commands to tailor the experience for you.

Figure 3 - Menu to pin commands to the Simplified Ribbon

The updated user experience is designed for simplicity, to feel lighter and more open, and focus on getting things done faster. We made it easier to scan the message list with more separation between emails, added stronger treatment for flagged items which are more consistent with other Outlook end-points and updated the single line view to include an unread indicator.

Among the feedback we heard over the last several months is that for some users the ability to see the maximum number of messages at once is paramount, so we recently added an option in the View tab to adjust density. Now the default experience will include the option to choose tighter spacing to see more messages at one time in the message list. This is especially helpful for users who work in single line view and choose Use Tighter Spacing on the View tab. Using tighter spacing also gives you control of the space around Send/To/Cc/Subject when composing emails.

Figure 4 - Single Line View with tighter spacing and unread indicator

Designed for faster interaction

Reading and creating email messages and calendar events needs to be straightforward, fast, and uncomplicated. The updates we made are geared to help you quickly focus and take action in a snap.

In the reading pane and email windows, the Subject is now at the top of the header, so it stands out more clearly. Part of this update includes reducing the area for the email recipients, making them collapsible while still clearly delineating To, From, and Cc. All of this helps you focus and leaves more room for your content in the message body.

The response toolbar has been updated to bring additional actions into the message area, such as to Reply with Meeting, and Forward as Attachment. These commands are now in context of the space where you are working, and you can respond faster.

Figure 5 - Message header updates

When you are writing or responding to an email, we’ve added more spacing around the To, Cc and Send buttons and removed some outlines to help the experience be less cluttered and therefore more usable.

We recently added new capabilities to Calendar in Outlook for Windows to make creating a new meeting easier. This includes changing the end to end flow of creating a New Meeting. Title is now the first field on the form and the Date and Time are BEFORE location providing smarter suggestions based on meeting room availability.

Thank you for your feedback

Thank you again for your feedback provided over the recent months while these changes have been available for preview. The Coming Soon button and toggle switch is going away for now. However, given the positive feedback we received about using Coming Soon as a tool to introduce change, we plan to bring it back when we are ready to introduce another new set of changes to preview.

We have simplified the Outlook for Windows experience and made it more powerful and customizable to help you stay organized and focused. As these updates are available to you, we hope they will save you time, help you get things done faster, and make Outlook more enjoyable to use. Please continue to give us feedback in-app and Outlook.uservoice.com.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Why have I not seen these changes and Coming Soon before?

The reasons you may not have seen these updates previously may be:

Your company may have restricted the option to preview the changes through Coming Soon
You may not have a subscription to Office 365 and therefore receive updates as part of the Monthly Channel subscription
Your company may not yet moved your email and calendar to the Office 365 cloud

Can I go back to the previous version of Outlook for Windows?

These updates are now the default experience for Outlook for Windows however you can choose to keep the classic ribbon which provides 3 levels of commands versus the single line of commands in the in the Simplified Ribbon. Additionally, if you Use Tighter Spacing, the wider spacing around messages and Send, To, Cc and Subject will be removed.

What are all the changes I should be aware of with this new user experience?

The changes are described above however here is a list of all the changes with additional images to help you identify where the updates have been made across the Outlook for Windows canvas.

Simplified Ribbon – see Figure 1 and 2 above

Option to remove or pin commands to the Ribbon

Overflow of commands used less often now found with a drop down ellipses

Adaptable ribbon that scales the visible commands based on the size of your window

Message List updates and layout density

Additional spacing between messages
Stronger visual cues for flagged messages
Unread indicator in the Single Line View – see Figure 4
Option to Use Tighter Spacing

Classic ribbon

Simplified Ribbon

Tighter spacing option for composing new messages

Reading pane – see Figure 4 above

Subject moved to the top
Smaller area for From, To, Cc
Long recipient lists are collapsible (not shown on Figure 4)
More response options are now in the message reading pane (instead of exclusively on the ribbon) with additional options to take action in a drop down ellipses

Meetings and Appointments

Subject change to Title
Title is now the first field
Required and Optional attendies are on the New Meeting form, instead of a single To field
Date and Time are before Location
Additional Timezones included as an option on the New Meeting form
Scheduling Assistant is now an option as a ribbon tab

Stay connected to your VIPs with Outlook mobile

Gabriel Valdez Malpartida — Tue, 28 May 2019 18:38:42 GMT

Our time, attention, and people in our lives are precious. We need to stay connected, organized and do so in a way that keeps us focused on what matters while keeping sensitive information secure. We are pleased to announce the capability to customize your Outlook mobile email notifications from your favorite people (VIPs), enhancements to Outlook for Android Contacts, and additional use of intelligent technology from Office Lens. Outlook mobile is designed to help you focus on what matters and stay connected with your important people, so you can organize and get things done, safely.

Favorite people and notifications

Selecting someone as a favorite person in Outlook mobile creates a special place in your sidebar to quickly access recent emails from them and makes it easier to stay connected. You can manage your favorite people, folders and Outlook groups -- just tap the pencil in the sidebar to edit your Favorites. Changes you make to your Favorites in Outlook mobile will also affect your Favorites in Outlook on the web.

Favorite people, folders and groups in the Outlook mobile sidebar

Our goal, however, is to help you stay focused on what matters at work and in your personal life. Days are often full of distractions and it’s critical not to miss emails from people that are important to you such as your boss, spouse or gym buddy. Outlook mobile can help you stay on top of things without interruption when you only receive notifications from your VIPs.

Now, in addition to the option to receive notifications from your Focused Inbox, Focused Inbox or Other or no notifications, customers who use the Microsoft sync technology for Outlook mobile can choose to be notified only when an email from one of your favorite people is delivered to your inbox.

Marking someone in your company or one of your saved Outlook contacts as a favorite is easy. You can tap on their email address or search for them in Outlook mobile to bring up their contact details. Simply touch the star in the top right corner of the contact card to add the contact automatically to your list of Favorites in your sidebar.

Also, we’re pleased to bring enhancements to the Outlook for Android contact card with additional contact details, information about where they fit into the company reporting structure and insight about who they work with (powered by the Microsoft Graph).

For more detailed information about the Microsoft sync technology, how to set-up favorite people and notifications and manage your contacts in Outlook for iOS and Android, you can look at the in-app FAQs in Help & Feedback or click here to learn more. The Microsoft sync technology is available to all Outlook.com users of Outlook mobile and is rolling out to Office 365 customers over the coming months.

Office Lens in Outlook

But what if your favorite person is not yet one of your Outlook contacts? Outlook for iOS and Android has a quick and easy way to add people to your Outlook contacts, just scroll to the bottom of the contact card of someone in your company and tap Add to Contacts. If your favorite person is outside your company and you have their business card – or if you’re at a conference and you collect a number of business cards, to further help eliminate clutter, stay organized and save you time, we also recently rolled out the option to scan a business card in Outlook for Android. This way it’s fast and easy to add a contact any time. Watch this short video about adding contacts to Outlook.

We’re really excited about this new capability because it saves you time and helps you most when you’re on the go; no typing required, just scan and save. Outlook mobile integrated the Office Lens intelligent technology to efficiently extract text from images and automatically convert a business card into an Outlook contact – so you don’t have to.

Office Lens technology has also recently been added to Outlook for iOS. Now you can quickly add a picture of a whiteboard or document right in your email so you can share with anyone to help you collaborate and get things done. For example, simply take a picture of the whiteboard or back-of-the-napkin sketch for someone who could not be there in person and send – all directly from your Outlook email message! With the drawing or inking tool in Outlook for iOS, you can now comment, highlight and personalize your message so it gets the attention it deserves. This new inking tool will be added to the Outlook for Android document, photo and whiteboard capture experience in the coming months.

Outlook mobile is a managed app

We recognize the importance of keeping sensitive information safe and that includes when you share company information through scanning documents, picture taking or adding information to your favorite contacts. Outlook mobile can help you stay organized and connected while keeping your company data secure.

Outlook mobile is part of the Microsoft 365 suite of managed applications with built in support for application protection policies that can be applied through mobile app management solutions such as Microsoft Intune. This way, companies can control how data moves between applications. For example, images of whiteboards and documents taken with Outlook mobile described here have the same protection as other email messages and attachments. If taken with the device camera app and shared outside of Outlook mobile, companies would not have the same controls.

This helps prevent any potential sensitive information that may be recorded in your contact details, such as home addresses of employees, from being stored outside applications that are managed by your company.

With Enterprise Mobility and Security which includes Intune, Conditional Access, and Azure Active Directory, Outlook mobile helps companies comply with their data security and compliance requirements.

We are really pleased to deliver more capabilities in Outlook mobile for you to organize, connect and get things done quickly. Simply adding Outlook contacts using intelligent technology to quickly scan business cards, sharing document and whiteboard images on the go and keeping you focused with customized notifications from only your VIPs are all capabilities designed to help you stay productive. But we’re obsessed with doing it in a way that helps keep your sensitive information safe.

Please continue to give us feedback about Outlook mobile in-app with Help & Feedback and go here to find recent Outlook mobile videos. You might find a tip or two you didn’t know were there! You can also join us for our webinar on June 6^th where we’ll demo time saving tips in Outlook mobile including some of the capabilities announced today

Thanks!

Actionable Messages in Outlook mobile help you act fast on the go

Eugenie Burrage — Tue, 07 May 2019 21:26:41 GMT

Today, we are announcing the support of Actionable Messages in Outlook for iOS and Android to further help customers get things done quickly on the go. When you receive an email that has an option to take action, such as approving a timesheet, granting system access or quickly answering a survey, you can act on it right inside the email without leaving your inbox and switching apps.

Microsoft is working with the developer community to integrate the tools, tasks and experiences of leading applications in a way that brings the work you would normally do in other apps right to your email. Using Actionable Messages with Adaptive Cards, developers can deliver messages in Outlook so customers can stay in context of what they doing and quickly take action. Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web already support Actionable Messages and rolling out over the next few months, customers will be able to take action with Outlook for iOS and Android on a mobile device.

Office 365 Groups: Actionable Message to approve adding members to groups in Outlook mobile

The Microsoft partners who are actively developing Actionable Messages with Adaptive Cards include SurveyMonkey, Freshworks, ServiceNow and Sage. If your company uses these business applications, you may soon see their new Actionable Messages appear in Outlook on your mobile device as well as the other supported platforms.

SurveyMonkey: Actionable Message professional development survey in Outlook mobile

If you are a developer: Partners who develop Actionable Messages with Adaptive Cards will be able reach their target users wherever they are and on their device of choice. The supported platforms are Outlook on the web, Outlook for Windows and Outlook for iOS for customers using the Microsoft sync technology. Outlook for Android will support Actionable Messages in the coming weeks and Outlook for Mac later this summer. Developers should now pivot to design Actionable Messages with Adaptive Cards for mobile first which will scale well to larger screens.

For our business customers: We’re helping customers improve productivity and achieve their business goals by partnering with leading developers of the applications they already use, including Microsoft 365. Business apps are intended to help achieve specific results. For example, shorten approval cycles that can reduce accounts payable or meet data compliance requirements, and reach front line mobile workers to retrieve inclusive company survey results. Now with Outlook mobile support of Actionable Messages, customers can act promptly, get results faster and increase reach when the emails can be acted on from their mobile devices.

Please give us feedback in Outlook mobile Help and Feedback or at Outlook.uservoice.com so we can continue to learn and improve how these new Outlook mobile experiences, including Actionable Messages, help you connect, organize and get things done faster.

FAQ

1. Who are some of the notable partners developing Actionable Messages for Outlook mobile at this time?

We are working with a range of first-party and third-party partners—including Microsoft SharePoint, Office 365 Groups, @mentions in Word and Excel inline tasks and MyAnalytics for focus time to SurveyMonkey, ServiceNow, Sage and Freshworks —and the number of partners continues to grow.

SurveyMonkey is combining the power of Microsoft Graph with Actionable Messages within its latest integration with Microsoft to enable intelligent peer-to-peer feedback. This new integration empowers employees to define, gather, and reflect upon feedback from peers for professional development. Microsoft Graph helps SurveyMonkey’s platform effortlessly identify users’ most frequent collaborators, while Actionable Messages ensure that survey recipients can quickly respond right from Outlook, without switching tasks or context, and when and where it is most convenient. Launching in the coming months.

ServiceNow offers Actionable Messages for approvals and to survey end users that engage a department for services and support. With Actionable Messages, it’s easier and faster to approve or complete a survey when you can take action right from the email message. Frictionless action means faster approval times, more responses and feedback, and therefore more opportunity to create great experiences for customers.

Sage understands importance of timesheet approval for auditing and payroll purposes and that late or missing approvals impact customers and employees alike. Making it easier and faster to approve timesheets with Actionable Messages in Outlook, approvals can be done on the go and on time.

Freshworks is using Actionable Messages to help speed up the helpdesk support process and improve productivity. Agent assignment and ticket priorities can be set right from the inbox of the triage team leads so they complete key steps in the process faster and aim to exceed customer expectations.

2. Do users opt-in to enable Actionable Messages once available or is it rolling out automatically to Outlook mobile users?

There is nothing users need to do to enable Actionable Messages. Customers using the Microsoft sync technology for Outlook mobile will automatically receive support for Actionable Messages. At this time, the Microsoft sync technology is available to all Outlook.com accounts and is still in the process of rolling it out to all Office 365 accounts. It’s expected that the roll out of the Microsoft sync technology for Outlook mobile customers will be completed in the coming months.

3. What Outlook endpoints support Actionable Messages?

Outlook for Windows - Version 1805, Build 9330

Outlook on the web – Available to all Office 365 customers

Outlook for Mac – Coming later this summer. Version number TBD

Outlook mobile will support Actionable Messages for customers who are using the Microsoft sync technology which is available today for all Outlook.com users and gradually rolling out in the coming months to Office 365 customers. The availability of the Outlook mobile app that support Actionable Messages are:

Outlook for iOS – available today, for Office 365 users who have been moved to the new Microsoft sync technology, and Outlook.com users.
Outlook for Android – in the coming months for Office 365 users who have been moved to the new Microsoft sync technology, and Outlook.com users.

This means that you may have the Outlook mobile app that supports Actionable Messages but until your company is using the Microsoft sync technology, the user experience with the Actionable Messages may not be as designed. We expect most Office 365 customers to be transitioned to the Microsoft sync technology over the coming months.

You can determine if you are using the Microsoft sync technology for Outlook mobile: go to Settings and select your Office 365 account. There will be a notation at the bottom of this screen if you are using the Microsoft sync technology. Customers can contact their account team if they would like to expedite the transition.

Information about support for Actionable Messages with Adaptive Cards in Office 365 can be found here.

*Actionable Messages is not available for US Office 365 Government Community Cloud High and Department of Defense customers.

4. Are controls available for Administrators to manage Actionable Messages?

Yes, Actionable Messages can be managed at the company tenant level by an administrator using a Powershell command to manage connectors. Disabling Actionable Messages would disabled them across all Outlook endpoints in addition to Outlook mobile. Office 365 Administrators can learn more about managing Actionable Messages in Outlook here.

Calendar updates in Outlook for Windows gives you time back

Eugenie Burrage — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 15:11:41 GMT

We've made updates to the Calendar in Outlook for Windows to help you effectively manage your most valuable resource, your time. We listened to your suggestions and made improvements so you can schedule meetings faster and easier and better personalize your experience. All the enhancements are available today to Monthly Channel Office 365 subscribers!

Creating a new meeting just got easier

Meeting form

In the meeting form, you can now choose Required or Optional attendees; you no longer need to switch to Scheduling Assistant or open the Address Book, so it’s faster to create a meeting invite. We’re rolling out this change as one of the user experience updates that some Office 365 customers have previewed through the Coming Soon feature, and this will be the experience in May 2019.

Former and new Meeting form with separate Required and Optional fields

Scheduling Assistant

When scheduling meetings, we have made it easier for you to add attendees. Under the Scheduling Assistant tab in Outlook, when you type a name, Microsoft intelligent services automatically suggests names of the people you frequently work with to invite to the meeting. This makes it quicker and easier to invite attendees, so you don’t spend your time searching for names. Start typing a person’s name, and you’ll see a list of people you can quickly select.

Scheduling Assistant tab with suggested attendees

We have also made the All Attendees list customizable. You can expand or contract the width to see more or less of the attendee list and scheduling options.

Scheduling Assistant with expanded Attendee List

Room Finder

We have received feedback from our customers that booking conference rooms, especially across multiple locations, can be complicated. We’ve enhanced the capability to reserve multiple rooms across multiple locations in Room Finder.

For example, a team meeting between several co-located offices may include conference rooms from different cities. Room Finder now lets you reserve conference rooms from more than one room list. With these improvements, each available room you select from the room list will stay in the Location field so you can add as many rooms as you need when planning your meeting. This allows you to efficiently create one meeting, send one invite to several locations, and gives you time back in your day.

Add multiple rooms across different Room Lists

Default duration

Do you ever have back to back meetings with no time in between, or know you need only 20 minutes of someone’s time but have 30 minutes blocked on the calendar? Outlook has introduced an option in the calendar to change the default duration for new appointments and meetings. You can build in buffer time between meetings and give you and your colleagues time back.

By setting to end appointments and meetings early by default, you can avoid meetings that start as soon as the previous one ends. This option can be set by you or at the company level by your administrator group policy. Meetings you already have on your calendar will not change if you update this setting. This encourages a culture of shorter, more productive discussions helping everyone get to their meetings on time and use the scheduled time wisely.

Option to set the default duration to end meetings early

Time zones

Working across time zones can be confusing. We have made changes to make sure that when you schedule an all-day or multi-day meeting, now your attendees will see the meeting in the day and month of their local time instead of yours. Plus, we have added the option to quickly view up to three time zones on the calendar surface at a glance. To learn how to manage time zones, read this article.

Add up to 3 time zones

Tools to help manage resources and give time back

Attendee Tracking

Sometimes, the decision whether to go to a meeting depends on knowing who is attending. Outlook shows tracking information, even for meetings you did not organize. Everyone – organizers and attendees – can see who else is planning to join. This helps everyone make informed decisions and optimizes resources. If your invite is forwarded, you and your attendees will be able to see who was added and how they responded.

Tracking status

Response Options

Have you ever organized a small meeting and it grew to a much larger one by being forwarded to others? Now you can take control of your meeting – in Response Options, uncheck the “Allow Forwarding” option to prevent required or optional attendees from forwarding the invite to others. You can avoid people from adding themselves or others to the meeting’s attendee list and prevent others from copying the invitation to their calendar directly. Now you can ensure only the attendees you want are invited. Click here for more information about Prevent Forwarding

Allow Forwarding of a meeting invitation

Customize your meeting reminder notifications with Advanced options

Automatically dismiss reminders for past calendar events

When you've been away from your desk for a few hours, or when you've been out of the office for a week, the Reminders pop-up box in Outlook shows old meetings that have happened in the past. We’ve added a new option that lets you automatically clear reminders of meetings that occurred in the past and may no longer need. Some users like to keep these meetings in their Reminder pop-up box as a reminder or as a prompt to send notes or take other follow-up actions, so we've made this an Advanced Outlook Option to continue supporting that workflow.

Option to dismiss reminders for past events

Show reminders on top of other windows

In addition, we have added an option to show Reminders on top of your active desktop windows, even when Outlook for Windows is running in the background. You can configure the reminder message to pop over other apps that you might be using so you can make sure you don’t miss your meeting. Click here for more information about keeping reminders on top.

Option to show reminders on top of other windowsReminders showing on top of other windows

We’ve rolled out these updates to address the feedback we’ve heard directly from you. Please continue to give us feedback in-app, in the Coming Soon preview pane, and Outlook.uservoice.com. Our goal is to continue making meeting planning easier, faster and more efficient so you can better manage life’s precious resource, time.

Understanding Search Scopes in Microsoft Outlook

abdias_ruiz — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 15:29:27 GMT

Originally posted by Cody Matson on the Outlooking TechNet blog on 4/28/2014

Search has become a feature that most Microsoft Outlook users rely on daily. Searching in shared mailboxes within Outlook can yield different results depending on how the Outlook profile is configured. Therefore, it is vital to understand how different configurations affect the Outlook search feature.

First, it is important to know that the Instant Search feature is only available when Outlook is in Cached Exchange Mode. Additionally, the Instant Search feature is dependent on the Windows Desktop Search (WDS) feature of the operating system. The WDS Indexer indexes the mailbox data that has been synchronized to the locally stored Offline Outlook Data (.ost) file. Secondly, if Outlook is in Online Mode, the search feature passes the query to the Microsoft Exchange server, utilizing the index available on the server. Outlook has different ‘search scopes’ that help direct the query against a specific dataset to narrow the results. In some configurations, you are limited to using the Current Folder search scope when searching in a shared mailbox.

If the shared mailbox is added via the Exchange email account’s Advanced tab (using the Open these additional mailboxes option) or via Auto-Mapping, you should be aware of the following limitation when the Outlook Search option is set to the All folders setting (you can view your Search options by clicking on the File tab, clicking Options, and then Search:( all search queries are executed against all folders of the primary mailbox. This occurs because the global setting was changed to ‘All folders’. However, searching across multiple mailboxes using the ‘All folders’ scope is not supported. In this scenario, after typing the search criteria to get instant results in Cached Exchange Mode (or pressing Enter in Online Mode), the search scope displayed in the upper left corner of Outlook shows All Mail Items or All Outlook Items selected. This is true even if you initiated the search in a folder of the shared mailbox. The end result is that no items from the shared mailbox are returned. To include the shared mailbox in the scope, you need to manually reselect Current Folder.

Based on your need, the profile may need to be reconfigured using one of several methods. These are detailed below.

Outlook 2010

Shared mailbox configuration	Allowed Search Scopes	Search Provider
Added via Advanced tab with Download Shared Folders turned on	Current Folder	WDS
Added via Advanced tab with Download Shared Folders turned off	Current Folder; All Subfolders*	Exchange Search
AutoMapped with Download Shared Folders turned on	Current Folder	WDS
AutoMapped with Download Shared Folders turned off	Current Folder; All Subfolders	Exchange Search
Second Exchange account in cached mode	Current Folder; All Subfolders; All Mail Items; All Outlook Items	WDS
Second Exchange account in online mode	Current folder; All Subfolders; All Mail Items; All Outlook Items	Exchange Search

* The All Subfolders scope requires FullAccess permission to the shared mailbox

In Outlook 2010, the Search options include the following scopes:

Choosing All folders instead of the default of Current folder results in all queries being processed against the primary mailbox, even when you initiate the search from a folder within a shared mailbox. As detailed in the matrix above, the only way to use the All folders scope (All Mail Items or All Outlook Items) for a shared mailbox is to configure that mailbox as a second Exchange account in the Outlook profile.

Outlook 2013

Shared mailbox configuration	Allowed Search Scopes	Search Provider
Added via Advanced tab with Download Shared Folders turned on	Current Folder	WDS
Added via Advanced tab with Download Shared Folders turned off	Current Folder; Subfolders; Current Mailbox*	Exchange Search
AutoMapped with Download Shared Folders turned on	Current Folder	WDS
AutoMapped with Download Shared Folders turned off	Current Folder; Subfolders; Current Mailbox	Exchange Search
Second Exchange account in cached mode	Current Folder; Subfolders; All Outlook Items; Current Mailbox; All Mailboxes	WDS
Second Exchange account in online mode	Current folder; Subfolders; All Outlook Items; Current Mailbox; All Mailboxes	Exchange Search

*The Subfolders and Current Mailbox scopes require FullAccess permission to the shared mailbox

In Outlook 2013, the Search options include the following scopes:

If the Search options are set to anything other than Current folder, you may need to manually select the Current Folder scope in the Search tab when searching in a shared mailbox. This can be done either before or after you execute the search. If you do not click Current Folder, the search results will be limited to the primary or secondary Exchange accounts in the Outlook profile. No items will be included from shared or AutoMapped mailboxes, or those added by using the Open these additional mailboxes option.

Additional Information

Exchange administrators may be interested in the following Microsoft TechNet article, which explains how to disable Auto Mapping:

Disable Outlook Auto-Mapping with Full Access Mailboxes

ZeroConfigExchange - Automating the Creation of an Outlook Profile for Exchange Accounts

G_Cozier — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 14:37:04 GMT

Often we are asked if we can automate the creation or modification of new Outlook profiles, en-masse, for Exchange accounts... without user interaction. Typically, an Outlook profile (.prf) file, which is generated through the Office Customization Tool (OCT), can be used for most situations. However, there are two scenarios under which the use of .PRF files are not supported:

Exchange Online accounts - this is because the .PRF file requires an Exchange server name to be hard coded. This is normally acceptable for on-premises environments, but for Exchange Online accounts, the server name contains a variable GUID that can change from time to time and from user to user.
Outlook 2016 - changes to how Exchange Autodiscover information is stored in parallel with an Outlook profile prevents the use of .PRF files to configure Exchange accounts in Outlook 2016

While you can still use a PRF for your on-premises environments and Outlook 2013 or earlier versions, it is recommended that you use Autodiscover, which is supported for creating Outlook profiles in both on-premises and Exchange Online environments.

So, how can we automate the Outlook profile creation?

ZeroConfigExchange (ZCE)

ZeroConfigExchange (ZCE) can be used to create new profiles for users with minimal user interaction. That is, the user does not have to enter any configuration data... only data that every user should already know (account name and/or password). ZCE is a registry setting that tells Outlook to create a new profile using the SMTP address from Active Directory and to then leverage Autodiscover. It's important to note that there are no supported tools for modifying an Exchange Online account. Again, ZCE is used as a way to automatically configure an Outlook profile for one or many users with Exchange Online or Exchange on-premises accounts. However, the underlying mechanism used to gather configuration data for your connection to Exchange is Autodiscover.

Implementing ZCE

Implementing ZCE is easy. It can be added (through a login script) to the user's registry or as a group policy setting for all users. Here's how:

1. In the Windows Registry, navigate to the appropriate subkey for each version of Outlook that is in use:

For Outlook 2016: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover
As a policy: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover
For Outlook 2013: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover
As a policy: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover
For Outlook 2010: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover
As a policy: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover

2. Once the key is created, right-click in the right pane and click New, click DWORD Value and type in “ZeroConfigExchange” (without the quotes) and then press ENTER.

3. Finally, right-click ZeroConfigExchange, click Modify and then in the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.

Note If you choose to deploy the setting using a Group Policy Object (GPO), see Managing Group Policy ADMX Files Step-by-Step Guide on the Microsoft TechNet Web site. For more information about how to use group policy, see the FAQ: Group Policy on the Microsoft TechNet Web site. The Office 2016 Administrative Template files (ADMX/ADML) are available from the Download Center.

ZCE User Experience

ZCE can be used in a couple of scenarios, with each behaving differently. It can be used in an initial Outlook Deployment for automatic profile creation, or when Outlook profiles already exist and a change requires a new profile to be created, such as a change to the target server. In either case, the user is not required to enter --or even know-- configuration details.

Initial Outlook Deployment

An initial Outlook deployment occurs when Microsoft Office or Microsoft Outlook is installed on the user’s workstation for the very first time. This means that no Outlook Profiles currently exist on the PC. As part of the deployment, ZCE could be configured via the Office Customization Tool (OCT). In this case, Outlook starts and the Outlook profile is automatically created during Outlook's first-run process. In a perfect case, there are no prompts. However, there may be a prompt for a username and password, depending on the Exchange Online configuration. Again, the user will not need to know nor need to enter any configuration details.

When Outlook Profiles Already Exist

This scenario would be necessary in cases where users need new profiles creates after having pre-existing profiles on the machine. This scenario requires additional registry keys be created (or pushed out to the user via GPO).

Note: Follow the steps in this section carefully. Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you modify it, back up the registry for restoration in case problems occur.

For Outlook 2013/2016/2019:

Exit Outlook.
Start Registry Editor. From the Start menu, type regedit.exe in the search box, and then press Enter.
Deploy ZeroConfigExchange key as mentioned above.
In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\XX.0\Outlook (XX.0 will represent the version of Outlook version – 16.0 = 2016/2019, 15.0 = 2013).
Select DefaultProfile in the right pane and click Modify.
Change the value data to the new profile name that you want to create. Make sure that it is not the same as any of the old profiles stored on the machine.
Click OK.
Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\XX.0\Outlook\Profiles (XX.0 will represent the version of Outlook version – 16.0 = 2016, 15.0 = 2013).
Right click Profiles and select New > Key.
Replace the value of the new key with the name of the profile that you provided in Step 6.
Press Enter.
Close Regedit.

Note: For Outlook 2010, the location of the keys that need to be changed are located under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles.

It might be best to run gpupdate /force and reboot the machine to make sure that the settings stick and aren't overwritten by any existing polices. After the reboot, I’d recommend setting Outlook to prompt for profile to ensure that the new profile is being created at launch. Outlook should display the new profile created as the main profile for login at the splash screen if set to prompt for profile, otherwise if not set then Outlook should load directly into the new profile at startup.

This forces Outlook to create the new profile and the ZeroConfigExchange process to populate it with the additional profile data. If these registry settings are not set or created, Outlook uses the current default profile and will bypass ZCE. As mentioned earlier, there may be minimal interactions with the user depending on your environment. Again, in a perfect case, there are no prompts. However, there may be a prompt for a username and password, depending on your Exchange Online configuration.That's it for ZCE. Create new profiles with minimal user interaction. Plain and simple.

Changes to Coming Soon in Outlook for Windows

Eugenie Burrage — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 23:39:23 GMT

Microsoft Outlook for Windows is used by millions of people every day, to communicate and connect with others, to stay organized, and to get things done. It is a critical and essential piece of their day, with their email, schedules and meetings, people and contacts, tasks, groups, all in one place.

We know that change can be difficult, and its impact is felt when it touches your day as Outlook does for so many customers. In September 2018, Microsoft introduced user experience updates in Outlook with a new Coming Soon feature allowing you to try the new experience at your convenience. The Coming Soon preview pane enables you to preview, read about and try out changes that are coming soon to Outlook email and calendar by turning on this experience with an on/off toggle. With the changes that can be previewed through the Coming Soon feature, we are bringing you the option of a simplified experience, and reapplying Microsoft design principles to make it cleaner and clearer.

The Outlook user experience updates have been available through the Coming Soon for the last several months. With the Simplified Ribbon, you can customize it if you want different commands from the most frequently used and you can easily pin and remove items to personalize the experience to your work style. We updated the folder pane with new icons, text and alignment adjustments to make it easier to scan and find the folder you want. Subtle changes were made to the Message List providing more spacing between messages for easier readability and updates to recognize flagged items faster. Additional updates to the reading pane and when composing email include fewer visual distractions as well as an improved sequence when creating a New Appointment, where putting time before location provides smarter suggestions based on availability. We love that over a million customers tried the new experience with Coming Soon by turning it on right in the app.

Coming Soon - preview option

In addition to letting you choose when to try out the changes, Coming Soon also lets you provide us with feedback, and it’s been invaluable in helping us adjust the experience. At the top level, we simply asked, do these changes make Outlook better? Almost half a million users responded, with over three-quarters saying “yes,” often with further written comments expressing strong preference for the simpler, cleaner, more modern design, and the new simplified ribbon that streamlines the experience. For the majority of those giving us feedback, we were on the right track. However, even more valuable than the praise was the constructive feedback we got from those who felt we could do better.

What We Learned

The response has been great, and feedback has been positive on the update as well as Coming Soon itself as a means of introducing change. One recurring bit of feedback was about the changes to the spacing in the message list and around fields such as To, Cc, and Subject. These design changes were intended to make the list easier to scan with better separation between each message. However, doing so reduced the volume of emails visible on the screen at once, which a small percentage of customers strongly prefer.

Changes based on feedback

Based on this feedback, we're introducing the option for you to choose to Use Tighter Spacing on the View tab, learn more. Similar to switching between the Simplified and classic ribbon, you can switch between standard and Use Tighter Spacing, depending on what feels best. Over the coming weeks, the density setting option will be described in the Coming Soon section as an option you can try it out and provide feedback.

Use Tighter Spacing optionMessage List spacing

Message compose spacing

We also want to remind you that all the user experience updates that have been described in Coming Soon over the last several months will soon be rolling out to all Monthly Channel customers. In May 2019, after rigorous rounds of validation and refinement, we will make the updates the default experience and no longer optional.

At that time, the Coming Soon button and toggle switch will also go away. However, given the positive feedback we received about using Coming Soon as a tool to introduce change, we plan to bring it back when we are ready to introduce another new set of changes to preview.

We are committed to continuing to improve the user experience and appreciate your feedback. We encourage you to try out the new user experience updates in Coming Soon in Outlook in the coming weeks. Moreover, we love your feedback – and want to continue to hear from you so the next time you see Coming Soon, you’ll have the confidence that we will continue to listen and learn. Please provide feedback in the coming weeks through the Coming Soon pane. And don’t forget that you can also continue to submit feedback to Outlook.uservoice.com

Save time with intelligence that works for you in Outlook on the web

Gabriel Valdez Malpartida — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 19:00:00 GMT

You’ve heard Office has been adding intelligent technology across the suite to help you stay ahead of threats and keep you in the flow of work. We’ve also been working in Outlook to deliver intelligence that will help you stay organized and get things done.

In the next few weeks you’ll see new intelligent features across email and calendar that will help you save time. With these, you will be able to see relevant information you might need to prepare for a meeting directly in the meeting invite, create a meeting faster by clicking on a suggested reply in your conversation, or receive suggestions on where to meet.

All these are possible thanks to the new framework that powers the new Outlook on the web which we recently announced. Let’s dive into the new features.

Meeting Insights – We’ve all been there. You arrive at a meeting without the context you need to effectively participate in the discussion. Worry not, Outlook is here to help! Using the power of the Microsoft Graph, Outlook will recommend you relevant information so you can prepare for your meeting. But wait, there is more! Once your meeting is done, we’ll also help you organize and find information about past meetings. The information includes files that have been shared with you in email, public files on SharePoint or OneDrive, emails you’ve had on the meeting topic, content shared during the meeting, meeting notes, and post-meeting content. The information is uniquely tailored, so people who are in the same meeting will not necessarily see the same recommendations. To learn more, read this support article.

To see Meeting Insights – Open the meeting event in your calendar and scroll down

Suggested reply with a meeting – You already know suggested replies, which shows you 3 options at the bottom of a conversation which you can click to start a new message and add that text when Outlook detects a response that can be addressed with a short response. We are taking that a step further. Now, when Outlook detects there is an intent to meet between the people in the conversation, one of the suggested options will be “Schedule a meeting”. Click that and the meeting form will appear with pre-populated information so you can get those meetings in the books faster without breaking your email flow. To learn more, read this support article.

Schedule meetings faster without breaking your email flow

Smart time suggestions – When you want to schedule a meeting, there are several methods you can use. You could send emails back and forth (we really hope you are not doing that anymore), or you could use FindTime and let your attendees vote on the best time, or you could use the well-known Scheduling assistant and look for a time that works for everyone. Wouldn’t it be great if Outlook suggested you a time and day when everyone could meet? Yes, we thought so too. When you are trying to schedule a meeting, Outlook will suggest days and times when attendees are free to meet. No more looking through free/busy schedules.

Outlook will provide day and time options when everyone is available

Suggested locations – Find a place to meet faster by allowing Outlook to suggest one. Next time you create a meeting click on the location bar to see our suggestions, doesn’t matter if you are looking for a conference room at work or a public place, these suggestions are tailored to you. You can also see details about these locations like address, business hours, and contact information.

See available rooms and public places for your meetings

We aim to bring you features that will make a difference, so some of these features will show up only in Outlook on the web while we gather data on them and evaluate whether to bring them to other Outlook endpoints.

We hope these features help you save time and get things done faster. When you try them, we would love to get your feedback. Please, let us know what you think in our UserVoice channel, we hope to hear from you!

Thanks!

Gabriel Valdez.

Focused Inbox, no more Clutter

The Outlook Team — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 13:00:00 GMT

It’s been just over a year since our last post about Focused Inbox and our plans for Clutter. We’re posting again to remind you that Clutter will not be available after January 31, 2020.

Focused Inbox is now available to all Office 365 customers using the Monthly Channel of Office 365 ProPlus, in Office 2019 for Windows and Mac, and in Outlook for iOS and Android.

Focused Inbox helps you focus on the emails that matter most to you. It separates your inbox into two tabs—Focused and Other. Emails you need to act on right away are in the Focused tab, while the rest wait for you in Other. You can switch between tabs at any time to take a quick look.

We’ve had a lot of feedback since we launched Focused Inbox and we’ve used it to improve the quality and accuracy of the technology that powers it.

We want to you to really enjoy the switch to Focused Inbox – and here are answers to some of the common questions we hear:

So what happens after January 31, 2020?

After January 31, 2020 we will no longer move any messages to the Clutter folder in the mailbox, and we will convert the existing Clutter folder to a regular user folder. We also won’t do anything to the messages in the Clutter folder, or remove the folder. We will stop sending digest notifications, and we will remove the options in OWA, the API’s and the admin tools.

Can I keep using Clutter instead of Focused Inbox?

You can keep using the existing Clutter experience until January 31, 2020. However, after that date, Clutter will be completely replaced by Focused Inbox.

So what do I have to do to enable Focused Inbox?

You can find information about how to enable Focused Inbox for each supported client here.

What happens if I’m not using Outlook mobile, or OWA, or one of the supported clients?

If you are not using one of the supported clients then emails that would previously have been moved to the Clutter folder will remain in your Inbox. As a workaround you can create rules to move mails from your Inbox to another folder, but of course the experience will be much simpler if you use Outlook. Want to see how it works in Outlook mobile? Check out this short video.

I’m the admin for my tenant – how can I switch my users from Clutter to Focused Inbox?

Office 365 admins can manage the rollout of Focused Inbox for their users with tenant and mailbox level controls using PowerShell. To learn more, see “Configure Focused Inbox for everyone in your organization”

I’m the admin for my tenant – how can I make sure important company emails land in the Focused tab?

Tenant admins have controls to ensure certain business critical communications, like HR, Payroll, etc., always land in the user’s Focused tab of the Inbox. These whitelists can be set up using mail flow rules from the Admin center or via PowerShell cmdlets. After these are set up successfully, all future messages that satisfy these mail flow rules would be delivered in the Focused tab of the Inbox on Outlook clients that support Focused Inbox.

Why don’t I see Focused Inbox in my Outlook client?

It might be because you aren’t using a supported version of Outlook. Make sure you are using a supported version and it should be available.

We really have put a lot of work in to Focused Inbox to make using Outlook more productive for as many users as we can, we hope you’ll try it, and we look forward to hearing your feedback.

The Outlook Team

Conflicting permission sets when working with shared or delegated folders in Outlook

abdias_ruiz — Fri, 19 Apr 2019 15:43:53 GMT

Outlook allows users to share folders so that others can interact with items in those folders. Additionally, a user can be configured as an Outlook Delegate, allowing him or her to manage specific tasks on your behalf, such as meeting related tasks. If another user grants you folder permissions (or makes you a delegate) and you use Outlook to perform actions on that user's shared items, Outlook performs these actions using a specific permission set. However, there are a couple of different ways that you can be granted access to a user's folders. Each of these ways can create a different permission set, which can later result in conflicts.

The diagram below shows how Outlook can be exposed to conflicting permission sets. Let's start with the following facts:

Permission set X is created when the Exchange Server Administrator grants you FullAccess permission to Allison's mailbox.
Permission set Y is created when Allison grants you explicit folder permissions by using Microsoft Outlook. Allison can do this in one of two ways:
- Grant you individual folder permissions by right-clicking on a folder and selecting Permissions.
- Configure you as an Outlook Delegate to specific Outlook folders, such as the Calendar.

When you use Outlook to work with Allison's shared items, Outlook may initially use one specific permission set (this is Permission set Y in the diagram below). As you continue using Outlook to work with Allison's items, a particular function may be blocked within the existing context (again Permission set Y). In this case, some expected functionality may not be available. However, it is important to note that the unexpected behavior will not be consistent, nor can it be clearly defined here, because the initial context used by Outlook can differ depending on how Allison's mailbox or shared items are first accessed by Outlook.

In the diagram, you see that the elevated permissions necessary to perform tasks on Allison's other folders are not available. This occurs because Outlook is not designed to consistently work with two or more permission sets.

In some cases, Microsoft documentation points this limitation out. For example, some of the issues that can occur due to conflicting permission sets are listed in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

981245 Issues that can occur when you add multiple Exchange accounts in the same Outlook 2010 profile

The bottom line: the easiest way to remember the limitation (and to avoid it) is by granting permissions using only one application: either Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Exchange Server.

Note for Office 365 mailbox users: If you and the person sharing their calendar with you both have Exchange Online mailboxes on Office 365, you may be able to take advantage of a new shared calendar experience. The new calendar sharing model makes significant improvements to the user experience. For more information about the new model, see the following Office help article:

Calendar Sharing in Office 365

Which application should you use to give permissions to your items?

Since a user should only use one of two methods (Outlook or Exchange) to share their folders or entire mailbox, the following table will help you choose. The table lists some of the benefits and functionality that are available with each method.

	Exchange FullAccess	Outlook Delegate or Shared Folder
Shared mailbox appears in the Outlook Navigation Pane	Automatically, if both of the following are true: a. Exchange FullAccess permission is granted with AutoMapping enabled on Exchange Server 2010 SP1 or later. b. You are using Microsoft Outlook 2010 or newer. Otherwise, you can manually add the shared mailbox as a second account using File \| Account Settings.	Not if you are only given permission to a specific folder or are only granted Delegate access. However, there is an exception. The user can grant you at least View permissions to their top level folder. Then, you add the shared mailbox to Outlook by using the Open these additional mailboxes option. If the user wishes to grant you access to their other non-default folders, they can set folder permissions on each individual folder.
Receive meeting invitations on other's behalf	No	Yes - if you are configured as a Delegate. No - if you only have folder permissions.
Able to view private items in shared mailbox	No	Yes, if you are configured as a Delegate and with the option "Delegate can see my private items". Note To view private items in other folders such as contacts or email folders, you must also be granted Reviewer permission to the Calendar.
Able to open shared mailbox in OWA	Yes	No
Effect on Offline Outlook Data (.ost) file size	One .ost file is created. It contains the contents of both your mailbox and of the shared mailbox.	Reduced size since only specific folders are being shared and cached (the additional shared folders are cached in the same .ost that is associated with the delegate's Outlook profile).
Other considerations	Not optimal as it requires maintaining permissions on both the Exchange Server (FullAccess) and Outlook client delegate/folder) permissions. Although the Exchange administrator can control this set of permissions, the administrator has no control over Outlook clients. Therefore, if a client chooses to configure delegate/folder permissions, they can enter an unsupported state. Additionally, the shared mailbox is fully exposed to any unexpected actions performed by the secondary user (or by any of their add-ins or devices).	This is the recommended option, as it limits the effect that other users' add-ins or devices can have on the owner's mailbox. Additionally, it prevents Outlook clients from being configured in an unsupported state.

Additional resources

One delegate can manage multiple mailboxes. However, any given mailbox should have a limited number of delegates. Additionally, only one delegate with Editor permission is recommended. See the following Office Help article for more information:

Best practices when using the Outlook Calendar

Exchange administrators may be interested in the following Microsoft Docs article, which explains how to disabling Auto Mapping:

Disable Outlook Auto-Mapping with Full Access Mailboxes

Support for AMP HTML preview in Outlook.com

Aimee_Sudeck — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 21:49:57 GMT

We are continually seeking new ways to provide outstanding customer experiences and drive advancements in email. As part of this pursuit, we are adding support for the AMPHTML email format as a preview in Outlook.com.

This email format enables dynamic email experiences with interactive content. During the preview, users will be able to interact with content from select trusted senders without having to navigate to separate landing pages. The format also supports dynamic content to keep information contained in email messages up-to-date.

We expect the preview to be ready by summer of 2019. We will closely monitor feedback from both users and partners during this time.

Stay tuned for more information on the preview and how to participate. To learn more, visit the AMP website.

32-bit Outlook interface elements unexpectedly render in black, white, or blank

MSFTsfellman — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 18:06:51 GMT

Updated: May 1, 2018 and June 13, 2018

The continued work of the Airspace, Outlook, and Word development teams resulted in Office updates and optimizations that address the remaining 32-bit Outlook rendering issues. This update provides details on two areas of particular interest: Airspace and Large Address Aware (LAA) functionality.

Airspace

Changes to Airspace were mostly completed in the November 2017 updates for Office 2013 and Office 2016. As you likely know, Office updates are cumulative, thus we recommend patching with the latest available updates for Office. A significant finding to share is related to hardware graphics acceleration and virtualization. Some customer feedback indicates many popular virtualization solutions do not support hardware graphics acceleration. Since enabling hardware graphics acceleration is required to fully benefit from the Airspace improvements, if you find the virtual solution that you are administering doesn’t support hardware graphics acceleration, please reach out to the software vendor to request support.

Outlook Large Address Aware Feature

As mentioned in the original post below, Microsoft was working on enabling a "large address aware" (LAA) Outlook. Due to the significant memory handling changes involved with LAA, Outlook development elected to follow the standard channel release model for the new feature in Office 2016 ProPlus. The Outlook LAA feature has made its way into both the Monthly Channel and the Semi-Annual Targeted (SAT) channel of Office 2016 ProPlus as of this writing and ~~should port~~ was ported into the Semi-Annual (SA) channel on May 8, 2018 ~~in summer 2018~~. LAA Outlook is also included starting with these MSI updates:

Initial reports indicate full resolution when both Office is updated (to include the Airspace changes) and an Outlook build that includes the LAA feature is used. Although others have indicated the rendering problems continue, they occur with a low frequency, hardly impacting their help desks. Still others –mostly users of memory-heavy Outlook add-ins– have chosen the 64-bit Office path to resolve the rendering issues. For some background on LAA, you can read the Office marketing team's article on the subject.

Original post...

Starting in mid-2016, some Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2016 users began noticing rendering issues and posting reports in our forums and communities. Then, in late 2016, similar reports started filtering into our support teams. The symptoms have included:

Buttons on the Outlook ribbon failing to paint properly
Email messages displaying either blank or black in the Reading Pane
The Navigation Pane failing to draw all folders properly
Various rectangles appearing in the Outlook user interface (UI)

The frequency of the problem has varied by user. Some have seen drawing failures once a week, while others two, three, or more times per day. These problems can affect all Office deployment technologies, including perpetual (also called MSI) and subscription (also known as Click-to-Run or C2R for short). In this post, we describe the architecture of the Office/Outlook rendering model. Additionally, we share steps to proactively mitigate the rendering issues. And lastly, we give you a peek inside the continued development efforts aimed at resolving these problems.

Background

Outlook is the main messaging application within the Office suite. Outlook uses shared Microsoft Office (MSO) code to perform many functions. Examples include Outlook's use of Microsoft Word for spell checking and HTML rendering and Outlook's use of shared Office ADAL code to perform Modern Authentication related operations. Office 2013 introduced a new rendering engine called Airspace to all the Office applications. Airspace's promise was to better leverage the hardware based graphics from DirectX in Windows 8 to enable new design experiences like animations and layered composition. Outlook continues to use Word and other shared office code like Airspace in the 2016 version. The initial release of Airspace as the Office/Outlook rendering engine came at a time when many devices did not have sufficient video hardware to accommodate the new rendering feature set. As a result, many users and firms forcibly deployed policies to disable hardware graphics acceleration, despite the fact that Office code was designed to turn the feature off if the hardware did not support it. Such policies still exist in many enterprises, although in most cases today, they could safely be removed (except for a few, very specific instances).

Rendering Issue Specifics

The players in the various iterations of the Outlook rendering problem are:

Outlook (our hero)
AirSpace (Office rendering engine)
Word (key for many Outlook functions)
Windows 32-bit application virtual address space composition (the law)

The primary cause of the rendering failure is memory pressure within the 32-bit Outlook process. Technically speaking, Outlook runs out of space for memory allocations within the process' virtual address space, resulting in rendering failures. This memory pressure comes in two forms, both viewable with the VMMAP tool:

A smaller than required available contiguous memory block (example: a texture requires a 128 kb memory block to render, but the smallest contiguous block available is 96 kb)
Low virtual memory available to the Outlook process (less than 250 MB free of the 2 GB total that Windows gives to all 32-bit processes)

Interested readers can dive deeper with VMMAP.

High resolution monitors
Outlook content spread across multiple monitors
Touch screens used to scroll through email and other messages within the UI (because of the bandwidth required to render screen content)
Use of unneeded or excessive COM add-ins
Large numbers of PST files added in the Outlook profile
DirectX failures due to older drivers
Dock/undock scenarios where resolution changes suddenly
Heavy use workflows (keeping many messages open, keeping many attachments open, crafting email with lots of graphic effects from WordArt, etc...)

The rendering issue seems to surface most frequently on high-resolution monitors. Older monitors rendered in 1600x1200 pixels. However, newer monitors may render at 3840x2160, or four times more pixels. The spike in 2016 for support cases with the rendering issues correlated to the increased adoption of higher-end hardware. Drawing the same UI surface for Outlook requires more pixels on the higher-res screens, and more pixels translate to more memory required, hence the quicker exhaustion of memory resources dedicated to the Outlook process. In simple terms, a full screen Outlook window that required 8 MB on an older monitor now requires 32 MB on a 4K display. Factor in lots of redraws and you understand how memory is quickly exhausted, leading to rendering failures. And a final note on high-res monitors: there is no vendor bias involved... the resolution on Microsoft Surface is similar to devices from Lenovo, Dell, or other hardware manufacturers, each vulnerable to 32-bit Outlook rendering pains.

Mitigation

The best mitigation for these issues -without question- is to move to 64-bit Microsoft Office. Windows provides four thousand times the addressable user-mode memory to 64-bit processes than it does to 32-bit processes. More memory is the best way to fight memory depletion issues. Note Some may get stuck on this recommendation, mostly due to add-in compatibility concerns and other concerns. Maybe your add-in vendor provides a 32-bit version of the add-in without an option for a 64-bit version. If this is your situation, we advise that you open a support case with your add-in vendor and insist on a 64-bit version of their product. The 32-bit limitation is immutable, hardware continues to get better, and extending Outlook with COM Add-ins is commonplace. 32-bit is not the future of desktop computing. Once you verify that you have rendering issues caused by a low memory state within the Outlook process, determined on your own or by working in tandem with Microsoft Support, there are steps you should take immediately to start mitigation:

Patch to the latest available versions of Outlook, Word, and MSO
Ensure hardware graphics acceleration is enabled:
- Start any Office application
- Click the File tab, then Options
- Then click the Advanced group
- In the Display section, ensure that the Disable hardware graphics acceleration check box is cleared, as shown here:
  
  Advanced Outlook option to Disable hardware graphics acceleration
Update video drivers to the latest provided by the video card manufacturer

For impacted users that cannot go to 64-bit Office for one reason or another, and for whom the previous steps do not fully resolve the rendering problems, there are other options to relieve memory pressure. To this end, some or all the following may help:

Restart Outlook regularly
Change DPI settings to greater than 200% on high-res monitors
Modify your Outlook workflow
- Keep fewer Outlook windows/messages open
- Disable or remove unneeded Outlook COM Add-ins
- Remove PST files from the profile when not used
- Avoid touch-scrolling through messages
- Avoid multiple monitor use with Outlook
For extreme cases:
- Use OWA
- Use Office 2010/Outlook 2010 (works past the problem since Office 2013 introduced Airspace)
- Update to Office 2016/Outlook 2016 (where we first implement product changes)

Roadmap

During the first eight months of 2017, the Airspace, Outlook, and Word development teams shipped over twenty code changes and optimizations into Office to reduce the frequency and severity of the 32-bit Outlook rendering issues. These changes address the glaring problems found during investigations of this past year. The bulk of this work shipped in June 2017, and further coding and testing continue through the time of this writing in order to eliminate other problems that we've isolated. Today, we are researching more complex rendering scenarios like multi-mon and docking/undocking scenarios for potential solutions. We are working on enabling a "large address aware" (LAA) Outlook, a step taken in 2016 by the Excel>Office Insider Fast by Outlook development. LAA promises to increase available process memory on 64-bit Windows to 4 GB, or a factor of one hundred percent. While the LAA increase is less than that of moving to a native 64-bit Office deployment, the important note is that Microsoft is looking at every possible angle to improve Outlook rendering. So far, all fixes taken are present in MSI builds of Office 2013 and 2016. Other development work outside the scope of this blog is happening too. Some of these ideas may only prove safe in Evergreen builds of Office 2016. Time will tell. Going forward, we plan to ship more fixes as we isolate problems. Due to the complexity of these issues and the number of teams involved, we expect that related changes will ship not all at once, but rather in a phased manner over the coming months. This approach mandates that our customers keep current on Office patch levels. And of course, if you have questions, we invite you to open a support ticket and work with our support teams to assist.

How Outlook 2016 utilizes Exchange Server 2016 FAST Search

abdias_ruiz — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 15:20:28 GMT

FAST Search

The term FAST Search may not be entirely new to you if you managed SharePoint sites anytime during this decade. With Microsoft Exchange Server 2016, the FAST search architecture has been introduced to Exchange. With FAST search, various new features are made available to Exchange 2016 mailbox users, including Search suggestions and People suggestions. These suggestions are dynamically computed based on your previous searches and the names of people that you frequently communicate with. The new feature set is readily available when using Outlook on the Web to connect to a mailbox on Exchange Server 2016 or Exchange Online. Additionally, the newer Outlook 2016 desktop client also takes advantage of the new FAST search when connecting to these same mailboxes.

The evolution of Search in Outlook

As far back as in Outlook 2003, Outlook has utilized Windows Desktop Search (WDS) to index Outlook Data (.pst) and Offline Outlook Data (.ost) files. These indexes are created on the local disk. At the same time, Outlook uses the same WDS architecture to search these local indexes when you initiate a search. The use of WDS in Outlook is sometimes referred to as Instant Search.

Let us focus strictly on searching Exchange mailbox content... Exchange content is indexed by WDS when Outlook is configured to connect to the Exchange mailbox using Cached Exchange Mode. When an Exchange email account is in Cached Exchange Mode, the mailbox contents are synchronized to the local .ost file. It is this local file that is indexed by WDS. WDS does not index the mailbox store directly. Why am I still talking about WDS? Because it is still relevant, even when using the latest and greatest versions of Outlook and Exchange.

Search in Outlook 2016 and later versions

In Cached Exchange Mode, Outlook 2016, Outlook 2019 and Outlook for Office 365 still query WDS desktop search indexes... and they query Exchange 2016 and Exchange Online using FAST Search.

Assuming FAST Search is not disabled by policy, Outlook initially submits a query to Exchange Online using FAST Search. If FAST Search results are returned in a timely manner (about 5 seconds), these are displayed. But, if the FAST Search timeout is reached before a server response, then a message indicating that We're having trouble fetching results from the server..., along with the link "Let's look on your computer instead." If you click this link, then WDS search results are displayed.

Note Outlook also assesses the performance of the network connection and if it determines there is latency, it may default to displaying WDS search results.

But wait, there's more! Some search scopes set search criteria that cannot be processed by FAST. If you set the scope to All Outlook Items, Subfolders, or All Mailboxes Outlook defaults to WDS results. The search scope is set next to the Search text box, as shown here:

Additionally, if you type search criteria that is not supported by FAST, Outlook returns WDS results (of course, assuming WDS supports the criteria). For example, Outlook supports the use of natural language queries, such as received:this year. However, Outlook FAST search does not. Therefore, if you submit received:this year, Outlook automatically displays WDS search results. To use FAST search for a similar query, you would need to submit the following criteria: received>12/31/2016.

To recap, Outlook uses FAST search and/or returns results using FAST, except if any one of the following conditions are true:

You are connected to a mailbox on Exchange Server 2013 or earlier
Outlook is connected to the mailbox in online mode
The FAST search feature is disabled via policy or local user registry setting (more on administering the feature below)
The FAST search query results are not returned in a timely manner (about 5 seconds)
Outlook assesses the performance of the network connection and determines there is latency
You are searching a secondary mailbox (there's an exception to this exception, as explained later)
The search scope is set to All Outlook Items, Subfolders, or All Mailboxes
The search criteria are not supported by FAST search

Am I seeing WDS or FAST results?

To determine which results Outlook is displaying, you can focus on some small user interfaces cues.

If the results displayed are those generated by FAST, the bottom of your message list will display the following cue:

If there are more than 75 results from FAST, the bottom of your message list may display the following message until reaching the service or client limit, whichever is smaller:

As mentioned earlier, if the service times out or is unavailable, the message list will display the link “Let’s look on your computer instead.”

If you click Let’s look on your computer instead, the results displayed are those generated by WDS. Of course, this is assuming that your local copy of the .ost cache contains items that match your serach criteria. The items that you are searching for may not be locally cached if a limited time window is specified for the Mail to keep offline setting. When this occurs, no local WDS results are returned, but you are given the option to check the Exchange mailbox by clicking Find more on the server:

Just as earlier Outlook 2016 client versions did, clicking More sends a non-FAST query to Exchange. This is because the client has already determined that FAST search to the service is not available… no need to go back and try that again.

And yes, Exchange Server 2016 supports both FAST and legacy Exchange Search functionality. The latter is still required for backward compatibility with Outlook 2013 and earlier versions.

Secondary mailboxes

When Outlook 2016 released, the plan was to only support FAST search on your primary mailbox. However, starting in the Fall of 2017, you should see that any Exchange email account added through File | Account Settings (also known as MultiEx or multiple Exchange accounts) now fully supports FAST search.

If you are limited to using an older build of Outlook 2016 and search in a MultiEx mailbox, the FAST query may be submitted in the context of the logged on user (you). This causes the search results to be pulled from your own mailbox, not the secondary mailbox that currently has the focus in your Outlook client. If you are unable to upgrade your Outlook 2016 client to the November 2017 Monthly Channel Build, you can temporarily work around this limitation by using one of the following options:

Change the search scope to All Outlook Items, Subfolders, or All Mailboxes
Disable Outlook 2016's use of FAST search via policy or local user registry setting (see the next section)

Note Other types of secondary stores, such as those added via Open these additional mailboxes or those that are automatically configured via AutoMapping, are still limited to WDS.

Number of results returned

Currently, the service limits the results to 1000 results. However, Outlook can further limit the results to 250 if the File, Options, Search group, Improve search speed by limiting the number of results shown checkbox is enabled.

Administer FAST Search in Outlook

To disable FAST search (server assisted search) and revert back to using WDS, an administrator can apply a group policy or implement the DisableServerAssistedSearch and DisableServerAssistedSuggestions user registry values. These are documented in the following table, along with other registry values to allow you to control additional FAST search functionality.

Note The 16.0 registry subkey name is valid for both Outlook 2016 and Outlook 2019.

Disable Server Assisted Search	Group Policy registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search DWORD: DisableServerAssistedSearch OCT registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search DWORD DisableServerAssistedSearch	Disables Outlook from requesting and using Search results from Exchange for cached and non-cached mailbox items. Instead, it will use search results from Windows search service. Set to 1 to enforce.
Disable Server Assisted Suggestions	Group Policy registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search DWORD: DisableServerAssistedSuggestions OCT registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search DWORD: DisableServerAssistedSuggestions	Disables Outlook from requesting search suggestions from Exchange. Set to 1 to enforce.
Default Server Latency Limit	Group Policy registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search DWORD: DefaultServerLatencyLimit OCT registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search DWORD: DefaultServerLatencyLimit	If the connection to Exchange is slower than DefaultServerLatencyLimit in milliseconds, then do not issue an Exchange Server Assisted search (will only use local search).
Server Assisted Search Timeout	Group Policy registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search DWORD: ServerAssistedSearchTimeout OCT registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search DWORD: ServerAssistedSearchTimeout	Timeout in milliseconds that Outlook should wait for Exchange to provide search results before falling back to use local search.
Search Suggestion Keyword Max Display	Group Policy registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search DWORD: SearchSuggestionKeywordMaxDisplay OCT registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search DWORD: SearchSuggestionKeywordMaxDisplay	Maximum number of keyword suggestions displayed in Search textbox.
Search Suggestion People Max Display	Group Policy registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search DWORD: SearchSuggestionPeopleMaxDisplay OCT registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\ search DWORD: SearchSuggestionPeopleMaxDisplay	Maximum number of people suggestions displayed in Search textbox.
Search Suggestion Total Max Display	Group Policy registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search DWORD: SearchSuggestionTotalMaxDisplay OCT registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search DWORD: SearchSuggestionTotalMaxDisplay	Maximum total number of suggestions displayed in Search textbox.
Wordwheel Time Out Exchange Search	Group Policy registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search DWORD: WordwheelTimeOutExchangeSearch OCT registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search DWORD: WordwheelTimeOutExchangeSearch	The number of milliseconds that Outlook will wait after text changes in the Search textbox before executing an Exchange Online Search using the Instant Search (FAST) API.
Search Suggestion Time Out	Group Policy registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search DWORD: SearchSuggestionTimeOut OCT registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search DWORD: SearchSuggestionTimeOut	The number of milliseconds that Outlook will wait after text changes in the Search textbox before issuing a query to FAST for suggestions.

Special thanks to Paul Slaathaug for reminding me to get this blog wrapped up and for providing additional topics to cover.

App configuration policies for Outlook mobile

Eugenie Burrage — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 21:30:01 GMT

At Ignite, we announced new capabilities to help customers deploy Outlook mobile at scale and manage with ease. We’ve heard from customers about their need to configure Outlook mobile in a way that supports their corporate security policies and compliance requirements, simplifies users onboarding experience and mitigates calls to their IT helpdesk.

With the device and app configuration policies from Microsoft Intune and other device management solutions built-in, Outlook mobile supports the Microsoft 365 solution that ensures only trusted users, using trusted devices and/or trusted apps get access to corporate data.

Let’s take a more detailed look at the new Outlook mobile App Configuration Policies and capabilities with Microsoft Intune which are rolling out now and revisit other recently launched enhancements.

Scale deployments with consistency

When deploying a new tool or technology, consistency and control are key. We are introducing the ability to push specific app configuration settings for Outlook for iOS and Android such as the on/off state for saving contacts, iOS biometrics options such as Touch ID/Face ID, block external images, and external recipients MailTip. Today, this MailTip is now on in Outlook mobile by default for added consistency and protection. App configuration policies can be set, either at initial onboarding or anytime administrators want to standardize the Outlook mobile experience for their end users. Additional settings such as Focused Inbox can also be managed by administrators as well as adjusted by the user.Outlook for iOS

Administrators will be able to manage these Outlook mobile app configuration settings for enrolled devices via any MDM provider. If you are using Microsoft Intune as your MDM provider, we are providing an enhanced App Configuration Policy interface for Outlook mobile, designed to make it simple for administrators to manage with ease.

Microsoft Intune app configuration settings page for Outlook for iOSStandardizing these settings will help simplify and scale the deployment of Outlook mobile while ensuring that end users have a consistent experience.

If using another MDM solution, the configuration keys and instructions on how to deploy these settings for Outlook for iOS and Android can be found here.

Enable faster account setup

We have simplified Outlook mobile account set up during modern authentication for Office 365 customers. We’ve removed the need to enter the SMTP and/or UPN address during authentication, and like single sign-on (SSO), customers need only enter their password (if an active token isn’t already available within the Microsoft app keystore). Office 365 customers, as well as, on-premises customers leveraging hybrid Modern Authentication environments can quickly deploy Outlook mobile regardless of what MDM solution they use. By ensuring employees use the correct work account setup, this user focused design approach can reduce calls to your helpdesk and makes securing your mobile workforce fast and easy. Check out Account Setup for Modern Authentication and account set up configuration settings

Allowing specific accounts

For most organizations and users, we believe that the blending of work and personal within Outlook mobile enables a user to manage their entire day end-to-end, providing the best experience for the user. However, we recognize that there are scenarios where that isn’t possible. As an example, due to certain regulations and compliance policies, a subset of employees in some organizations are required to utilize company-owned and company-managed mobile devices to access corporate data. In this scenario, these employees are prevented from using the company mobile devices for personal use.

To satisfy this requirement, administrators can use Microsoft Intune or another mobile device management (MDM) solution to apply a rule that allows only the employee’s email and OneDrive for Business storage account to be accessible within Outlook mobile on enrolled devices. With this, users will not be able to add personal accounts to these company managed devices. Learn more about organization allowed accounts mode settings and how to deploy it.

We are committed to helping customers meet their mobile security and compliance requirements with capabilities and tools to manage Outlook with ease. Visit Outlook for iOS and Android in Exchange Online to learn about the advanced app protection and configuration policies that can be deployed today and give you confidence that your corporate data is safe.

Outlook mobile meets needs of customers with the highest Federal security & compliance requirements

Eugenie Burrage — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 17:41:44 GMT

Today, we’re announcing that the recently updated architecture for Outlook for iOS and Android meets the security and compliance needs of Office 365 US Government Community Cloud (GCC) High and Department of Defense customers. In addition to FedRAMP Moderate compliance announced last year, all US government customers can now utilize Outlook mobile.

To meet the high level of government security and compliance requirements, we updated the Outlook mobile architecture to use a native Microsoft sync technology. This change intends to reduce latency and will provide access to new enterprise-grade features such as S/MIME as they roll out on the updated architecture over the coming months.

We will also be able to extend Enterprise Mobility and Security (EMS) capabilities for Outlook for iOS and Android to GCC High and DoD customers so that they can combine the power of Outlook mobile with Azure Active Directory Conditional Access and Intune App Protection Policies to securely manage email and calendar data on their mobile devices.

We’re excited that the GCC High and DoD customers can adopt Outlook mobile at this time as we continue to roll out new mobile experiences designed to get things done faster. Our aim is to help all customers stay connected and on top of what’s important while on the go and with confidence that their sensitive information is more protected.

For example, customers can experience recently launched calendaring capabilities such as the option to add a comment when canceling a meeting or take quick action from your inbox with one tap to remove a canceled event from your calendar. Seeing attendee status in your calendar events is also a good example of how Outlook mobile powers productivity and collaboration.

Calendar event - attendee tracking Outlook for Android

Capabilities such as these are designed to get micro tasks done quickly, minimize typing, and with exquisite attention to craftsmanship, provide relevant context so you can get in and out of app fast and back to what matters in your day.

We learn every day with feedback from our customers and now look forward to hearing from GCC High and DoD customers about the power and simplicity of Outlook for iOS and Android. We remain committed to listening and learning from all our customers about the experiences that help you connect, organize and things done. Download it today.

FAQ

Q: What changes were made to the architecture for Outlook mobile that makes it compliant for GCC High and DoD customers?

A: To meet the high level of government security and compliance requirements, we updated the Outlook mobile architecture so that it establishes a direct connection between the Outlook mobile app and the compliant Exchange Online backend services using a native Microsoft sync technology and removes middle tier services.

The requirements for GCC High and DoD, DISA SRG Level 4 (GCC-High) and Level 5 (DoD), Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations Supplement (DFARS), and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), have been approved by a third-party assessment organization and are FISMA compliant based on the NIST 800-53 rev 4.

Q: Do GCC High or DoD customers need to do anything to prepare for this change?

A: No, there is nothing these customers need to do to prepare for this change. Effective January 15^th, 2019, GCC High and DoD customers will be free to download and use Outlook for iOS and Android.

Q: Should GCC High and DoD users turn on the GCC mode toggle in Outlook mobile settings?

A: No, GCC High and DoD users should not turn on the GCC mode toggle. If they do, they will not be able to authenticate and access their Exchange Online mailbox. The GCC mode toggle should only be used by existing GCC customers with moderate security requirements. Eventually, the GCC mode toggle will be removed from the app.

Q: Is Outlook mobile an endpoint that uses the Azure Government AAD Authority?

A: Yes, GCC High and DoD customers should ensure their tenant is configured using the new authority endpoint as previously notified and described here.

Q: Are the Outlook mobile features for GCC customers with moderate compliance requirements the same as GCC High and DoD?

A: Yes, unless a GCC customer takes steps to opt out of the Government Community Cloud environment or apply configuration practices to change the set of available features (via mobile device management or other configuration controls), US Office 365 GCC customers will all have the same features. In order to comply with the government compliance requirements, however, there are some features and services that are available to commercial and consumers but not available to US Office 365 GCC customers as described here.

Q: Are there specific Outlook mobile app versions required for GCC High and DoD customers?

A: Yes, please refer here for the app version numbers that will enable Outlook for iOS and Android for GCC High and DoD customers. It is important to note however that the roll out of these app versions through the respective Apple and Google app stores may take several weeks to reach all GCC customers. Administrators may wish to notify their helpdesks to check the app version should a GCC High or DoD user have trouble accessing their email and calendar date after January 15^th, 2019.

Q: What is the target date for FedRAMP compliance for EMS GCC High?

A: Intune and Azure Active Directory Premium, are available today in limited rollout for select GCC High and Department of Defense customers and are FedRAMP High compliant. Full rollout is expected by March 2019.

Updates to Outlook on the web

Gabriel Valdez Malpartida — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 22:25:19 GMT

We recently rolled out changes to Outlook on the web to improve your Calendar and sign-in experiences.

Simplifying your sign-in to Outlook on the web

We’ve heard your feedback that you want an easier way to find where to sign in to Outlook, so we’re making it easier for Office 365 users to sign in to Outlook on the web by offering more options. People with an Office 365 account that use Outlook on the web can now sign in to their work or school accounts using https://www.outlook.com/

When Outlook detects it’s not an Office 365 account instead of an MSA, it will redirect them to their organization’s sign in page, pre-populate the email address they entered, and follow their current sign in process.

Users will be redirected to their organization’s page

Improved meeting response

We are updating how Outlook handles meeting responses when a user chooses to not send a response to the meeting organizer. With this update, when a user responds to a meeting invite and chooses to not send a response or to not notify the organizer, Outlook will update the user’s response in invitee list but won’t send an email to the organizer.

If you are using the classic version of Outlook on the web, select “Do not send a response” to let the organizer know your response but to avoid sending an email to them.

Select “Don’t send the response” if you are using the classic version

If you are using the early version of the new Outlook on the web, switch the “Notify organizer” toggle off. The organizer’s attendee list will be updated, but no email will be sent.

Switch off the “Notify organizer” toggle (the toggle will turn white) in the new Outlook on the web

Note: the improved meeting response only applies when both the organizer and the invitee are Office 365 users. If you select “Do not send a response” or switch off the “Notify organizer” when responding to a non-Office 365 meeting organizer, Outlook won’t update them.

Use Teams for online meetings

As we modernize our infrastructure, we aim to give you the power of the best of Office. With that in mind we have updated the online meeting feature in the new Outlook on the web to use Teams as the default online meeting tool. This update will only be available in the new Outlook on the web if your organization has enabled Teams. If your organization is not enabled for Teams, you will continue to see the option to add Skype for Business.

Create a Teams meeting by switching the toggle to the right

What if not all my users are enabled for Teams?

It is also possible for organizations to enable only certain users for Teams. In those cases, the Teams-enabled users will see the option to create Teams meeting, and users who are still enabled only for Skype will only see the option to create Skype meetings.

Even if a user is not enabled for Teams, they can still join a Teams meeting from the Teams web application or by downloading the full Teams app. Similarly, if a user is no longer enabled for Skype, they can still join Skype meetings via the web application or the app.

We keep working on features based on the feedback you give us in UserVoice, so please, let us know what you think about these updates that we hope will help you stay connected and on top of things, easier.

Thanks!

Outlook for Mac adds administrative controls

Eugenie Burrage — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 21:53:18 GMT

We are rolling out new capabilities to help administrators protect company data and manage Outlook for Mac with ease while supporting a simplified user experience.

In the coming weeks, we will add enhancements to support account configuration management and managed preference settings in Outlook for Mac.

Let’s explore the scenarios and examples:

Account Configuration

1. Automatically add Office 365 mailbox

In the past, Office 365 customers had to manually add their work accounts when launching Outlook for Mac for the first time. We’re helping customer simplify the activation experience by reducing the number of steps for certain activation states.

Starting in version 16.17, administrators can now automatically add the Office activation email address in Outlook for Mac.

When this preference key is deployed, Office 365 email addresses will be automatically added when they first open the app and their account will immediately start syncing with Outlook for Mac. In many cases, no clicks are needed after the initial launch. If additional information is required, such as multi-factor authentication, the user will be prompted as needed.

Figure 1: On first launch, Office 365 mailbox will be automatically added and connected

Note: This account configuration capability supports adding Office 365 and Exchange online accounts only. Consideration for adding other account types, such as Exchange on-premises mailboxes, will continue as we learn from customer feedback.

2. Specify email address or domain of Office 365 mailbox to be added

Does your company Office activation email address differ from the Office 365 mailbox email address? For example, your company may use user@contoso.biz for Office activation and user@contoso.com for Office 365 mailbox email address.

With version 16.18 or above, administrators can use a new preference key to specify a full email address or a specific domain to be added in Outlook for Mac instead of the Office activation email address.

When specifying a full email address, the entire email address will be added in Outlook on first launch. When specifying a domain, the local-part of the Office activation email address will be used with the domain specified. These changes will simplify the user experience and they will be prompted only for required company credentials.

3. Add only corporate accounts

Highly regulated industries and some company data protection compliance policies restrict personal use of company devices. Subsequently, these companies only allow corporate accounts on company devices in order to mitigate potential data leakage and to reduce the company’s responsibility for non-corporate data on company machines.

With version 16.18 and beyond, administrators can set a preference key to only allow corporate accounts in Outlook for Mac. When customers add a new account in Outlook, any email account matching the criteria specified by the administrator in the preference key will be allowed, and all other accounts will be prevented from being added.

Note: If administrators use the new preference key, this will not remove or disconnect personal accounts already added in Outlook.

Figure 2: Allow only company accounts

4. Hide text about adding personal accounts:

In addition to allowing only company accounts in Outlook for Mac, another preference key has been introduced starting in version 16.18 for administrators to hide the text in the account setup success dialog regarding support for personal accounts.

Figure 3a: Text mentioning personal accountsFigure 3b: Text mentioning personal accounts will now be hidden

Administrators can use this preference key to hide the text that tells users they can add their personal accounts. This preference key can be use even if companies choose not to enforce the policy to only allow company accounts.

Managed Preferences

1. Manage existing in-app preferences

For organizations using macOS Configuration Profiles to implement managed preferences for applications, Outlook for Mac version 16.17 or higher now respects when existing preferences are set as Forced and appropriately disables the controls in the Outlook for Mac user interface. This change will provide users with an indication that the preference is being managed by their company administrator.

For example, administrators can manage when pictures can be automatically downloaded from the Internet:

Figure 4: Preference to download pictures (top) supported. Preference to download pictures now disabled by Company administrator (bottom)

2. New preferences for data protection

We are adding new preferences for Outlook for Mac to help mitigate potential data leakage when importing or exporting archive files and help customers ensure their workers have a consistent experience.

Starting with version 16.18, new preference keys have been added to prevent importing archive files (PST and OLM) and Outlook 2011 identities as well as exporting archive files (OLM). When administrators set these preference keys as Forced via the macOS Configuration Profile, the Outlook for Mac user interface will be updated to gray out Import and Export options.

Figure 5: Import and Export in disabled in Ribbon

3. New preference for managing signatures

For companies using a server-side solution for applying signatures, starting in version 16.18 we will support a new preference for Outlook for Mac that supports server-side signatures and disables client-side signatures to prevent interference.

When administrators set this preference key as Forced via macOS Configuration Profile, the Outlook for Mac user interface will be updated to gray out creating, editing, and adding client-side signatures within the app.

Figure 6: Client side signatures disabled in Signatures preferences

Managing this setting will improve the end user experience and ensure their signatures are displayed as intended.

4. New preference for managing online meetings

For companies using Skype for Business for chat, but another solution for online meetings, in version 16.19 we will add a new preference for Outlook for Mac that prevent users from adding Skype for Business online meeting details to events.

When administrators set this preference key as Forced via macOS Configuration Profile, the Outlook for Mac user interface will be updated to gray out adding Skype for Business online meeting details to events.

5. New preference for managing weather location

With Outlook for Mac version 16.19, we are adding a new preference to set the default location for the weather displayed in the calendar view. This will help customers ensure a consistent user experience with respect to weather information.

Figure 7: Default weather location set and “Update Location Automatically” disabled

For instructions on how to manage these app configuration settings and other preferences for Outlook for Mac, go here.

Outlook for Mac improves calendar sharing performance with REST

Eugenie Burrage — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 17:44:56 GMT

We’re excited to announce that Outlook for Mac will soon start syncing calendars via REST for Office 365 customers in the Insider Fast program.

What you need to know

We're introducing a new syncing model for sharing calendars in Outlook for Mac for Office for Mac Insider Fast. These changes will bring improved reliability and performance of calendar sharing in Outlook for Mac based on the use of REST technology.

In the past, the list of shared calendars was previously stored locally for each installation of Mac Outlook. As a result of this upgrade, Outlook for Mac will now use the server-roamed list of calendars.

For more information about shared calendar improvements across Outlook, please see this article.

Benefits to moving to REST

When migrated to the new calendar syncing model, customers should expect to experience the following improvements

Consistent sharing permissions that matches the other modern Outlook clients (Outlook mobile, Outlook on the web, Outlook for Windows)
The ability to share a secondary calendar without having to share a primary calendar
New tenant-based setting to allow sharing calendars with people inside or outside your organization
A quick action feature to accept calendar sharing invitations from the Inbox
View the same calendars in Mac as you see in all the other Outlook applications
Open & view any calendar, even if you only have free/busy permissions
Support for inline images in meetings & appointments

At this time, these improvements are rolling out to Outlook for Mac Insider Fast customers with mailboxes hosted in Office 365. These Office 365 mailboxes will begin syncing calendars via REST, rather than Exchange Web Services.

We do not have specific timelines yet for Insider Slow customers or Production, but we’ll update you again when we’re close to releasing to those customers.

What the user experience will be

When a user is migrated to REST, they will be prompted to restart Outlook. Once they restart, their calendars will start syncing via REST.

After being upgraded, the user will continue to see all previously opened primary shared calendars, as well as shared calendars that were opened or added in Outlook for web, mobile, or Windows.

Upgrade Experience

Post Upgrade

View free/busy calendars in Mac

Preparing for change

On October 17th, we will to slowly roll out these improvements to Insider Insiders customers, and the initial release will be a small percentage of Outlook for Mac users.

NOTE: This means that some users will experience the switch sooner than others. Based on user feedback & telemetry, we will continue to extend the improvements to everybody in Insider Fast.

Q&A

Is Outlook.com accounts supported?

No, currently only Office 365 commercial accounts in the Insider Fast program are supported and will be migrated to REST.

Are there any functional differences between the old model on EWS and the new model on REST?

Categories do not work for old-model shared calendars. Users can upgrade their shared calendar to the new model for full category support. To learn about new vs. old models of calendar sharing, please see this article.

Is REST happening for On-prem accounts?
REST is not supported for customers with Exchange servers on premises. Users on these servers will continue to sync calendars via EWS as they do today.

Is REST applying to calendar only? Why?
REST sync is only applicable to calendars. Any inbox actions, even responding to meeting invitations, will continue to use EWS. This is to ensure that we have parity of features between EWS & REST at this time.

When I add Skype or Teams, the coordinates do not show immediately in the meeting body. Why?
With our move to REST, we no longer need to rely on the Skype for Business client to help schedule online meetings. Instead, we will rely on the Exchange Online APIs that are currently used by Outlook on the web & Outlook mobile, and Outlook for Mac will have the same experience. Meeting co-ordinates are inserted into the meeting body when the meeting is created, so you won’t see the addition until the meeting is sent.

Conditional Access in Outlook on the web for Exchange Online

David Los — Fri, 05 Oct 2018 00:26:56 GMT

We live in a world where employees want to use a wide range of devices; this includes corporate owned assets, as well as their personal devices, and public or shared devices. While we want everyone to be empowered to work productively, we need to ensure we protect corporate data.

The freedom to work fluidly, independent of location, has become an expectation as has the freedom to access email and documents from anywhere on any device—and that experience is expected to be seamless. However, data loss is non-negotiable, and overexposure to information can have lasting legal and compliance implications.

Exchange Online and Outlook on the web have been investing to ensure we are able to respond to evolving security challenges. We start this journey by introducing Conditional access policies for Outlook on the web. Conditional access provides the control and protection businesses need to keep their corporate data secure, while giving their people an experience that allows them to do their best work from any device.

Last week at the Microsoft Ignite conference we announced and demoed how to configure conditional access new policies. These policies will restrict the ability for users to download attachments from email to a local machine when the devices are not compliant. With the power of the Office Web Apps, users can continue to view and edit these files safely, without leaking data to a personal machine. If you instead want to block attachments fully (when on a non-compliant device) we also support that!

Steps to Configuring Conditional Access / Limited Access for Outlook on the Web

To configure Outlook on the web Conditional Access follow these steps:

Connect to Exchange Online Remote PowerShell Session
Create a New OwaMailboxPolicy or Edit your existing one

Set-OwaMailboxPolicy -Identity Default -ConditionalAccessPolicy ReadOnly

Configure an Azure Active Directory Conditional Access Policy in the Azure Portal

Figure 1: In the new policy enable Exchange Online in the App Selection

Figure 2: Enable App Enforced Restrictions for Session Controls

To learn more about conditional access in Azure Active Directory see this.

Once you have properly configured the Polices in both Exchange Online and in Azure Portal your users that are in non-compliant devices will start getting the Limited Access Experience.

Figure 3: Notice that the download, as well as enabling Offline access options have been removed

Figure 4: The Office Web Editors will also have a banner informing the user that they have reduced capabilities due to their device compliance state.

We look forward to hearing how this works for your organizations! We will continue to invest in ensuring that we provide the right level of access to your users so they can stay productive, all while protecting your corporate data.

David Los

Get Ready for Microsoft Ignite 2018 - Outlook sessions at a glance

Eugenie Burrage — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 15:08:32 GMT

Microsoft Ignite is happening September 24^th to 28^th in Orlando Florida.

Although it's sold out, for those who did not purchase a ticket, the news is not all bad; far from it! We have some great sessions planned and you’ll be able to watch them LIVE.

We’re streaming many sessions at the same time as they are delivered to the attendees. Visit the Microsoft Ignite 2018 site on the 24^th and watch them there, or get links to breakout sessions. The Session Catalog recently went live so you can use it to find the sessions you want to see right away.

Here are just a few Outlook sessions you should know about:

Get an exclusive, inside look at how the Outlook team actually uses Outlook – all day long! They build it, they use it, and they will show you how to get the most from it. BRK2164 – The Best (Outlook driven) day of your life – Tuesday, September 25, 10:15 AM – 11:00 AM

Outlook on the web just updated their user experience. Learn more about the features that happen here first at BRK3128 - Outlook on the web - What's new and why you should care! Tuesday September 25 4:30 – 5:15 PM

Program Managers and a valued customer gets on stage to share why Outlook mobile is better and more secure than the native apps on your phone at BRK2177 - Outlook mobile for the enterprise – Wednesday, September 26, 12:30 – 1:45 PM

We will be sharing what the future will look like on Outlook for Windows and Mac during BRK3144 - Deep dive into what’s new and coming soon to Outlook for Windows and Mac – Wednesday, September 26, 4:00 – 5:15 PM

Ross Smith IV will of course be there to explain the best kept secret to securing Outlook for iOS and Android - BRK3145 - Deploying Outlook mobile securely in the enterprise - Thursday, September 27 10:45 AM - 12:00 PM

One of the highest rated sessions at Ignite last year was delivered by Julia Foran. So make sure you see her, accompanied by Jennifer Lu, they’ll share What's amazing and new in calendaring in Outlook! In BRK3146 - Thursday, September 27, 9:00 AM - 10:15 AM

There are many more sessions, breakout and theatre demos. So go take a look at the catalog and start figuring out what you want see or stream LIVE.

For those of you actually in Orlando, we’ll be handing out surprises for the best questions at our panel discussions – scroll down for more details. And check out more Outlook specific sessions and theatre demos below to help with your Ignite planning.

Plus, Outlook and Exchange is sponsoring the Scheduled Maintenance party this year hosted by a Gold Partner - ENow Software. It may very well be the hottest party of the week!So, if you want a chance to come and socialize with the engineering team, MVP’s and speakers, go and sign up. We know it will be over-subscribed and not everyone who wants to be there will be able to, but you can’t join if you don’t sign up and we would love to see as many of you there as we can.

See you in Orlando (or LIVE streaming)!

Panel discussions

BRK3258	Panel Exchange, OWA and Calendar	Thursday 2:00- 2:45
BRK3259	Panel Outlook for Windows, Mac and mobile	Thursday 3:15 - 4:00

Theatre Demos

THR2043	Let the intelligence built into Outlook help you to make time for what really matters	Tuesday 10:10 - 10:30
THR2311	Teamwork updates with Microsoft Teams, Office, Outlook and more	Tuesday 10:10 – 10:30
THR3012	Security made real with Outlook mobile in-app experiences	Tuesday 2:15 - 2:35
THR3051	Outlook on the web: Don’t block your users, restrict them with conditional access/limited access	Wednesday 10:10 - 10:30
THR1035	Microsoft OneDrive, Outlook, Teams, and Office 365 - better together	Wednesday 2:50 – 3:10
THR2045	The Power of People in Outlook	Thursday 12:30 - 12:50
THR2232	Simple room booking in Outlook using new built-in Intelligence	Thursday 1:05 - 1:25

Developer focused sessions

BRK3286	Build business critical applications leveraging Microsoft Outlook	Wednesday 11:30 – 12:15
BRK3315	Create engaging, powerful new business processes in Microsoft Outlook with Adaptive Cards	Wednesday 12:30 – 1:45
BRK2118	Adaptive Cards in Teams, Windows, Outlook and your own applications	Wednesday 4:00 – 5:15
HOL3010	Build a responsive Outlook add-in by using new event APIs	Hands-on lab room

List of features not yet available in the early version of the new Outlook on the web

Gabriel Valdez Malpartida — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 18:01:34 GMT

Editor's note: List of features updated on 1/18/19

Currently unsupported (Coming soon)

Mail:

S/MIME - Reading pane and Compose

Enterprise chat

Delivery receipts

Voting buttons

Flag date range support

Notification panel

Calendar:

Propose new time from meeting invite

Email reminder

Reminder to turn off out of office notification

Add and edit birthday calendar

Change weather location settings

Publish calendar settings

Files module

Limited support:

Admin policies via Set-OWAMailboxPolicy

Shared folders

Newly available (Since September 2018)

Mail:

Open shared mailbox

Undo Send

Folder retention policies

Calendar:

Split view

Add someone else’s calendar

Multiple online meeting provider support

Duplicate events

Conference room search

Change event time zone

End of edit.

On September 10th, when Targeted Release customers can opt-in to the early version of the new Outlook on the web, there will be some features that won't be available yet in that early version of the new experience.

If you need to use a feature that is not yet available you can opt-out of the early version and opt-in again later, as often as you want.

See below for features not yet available on September 10th.

Mail

1. Reading Pane and Mail Compose

No chat or call functionality integrated in your inbox
Edit "Send From" address
Policy tips - Policies will be respected and actioned but users will not see prevention tips.

2. Folders and Message List

Shared Folders - No ability to share individual folders across mailboxes.
Folder retention policies - No support for administrators being able to set how long emails are retained in certain folders. Ex: Changing how long emails stay in Junk email before being automatically deleted

Calendar

1. Forms

Not able to add or remove time zones.
No Mailtips available in Calendar while reading/composing
No ability to propose a new time from the meeting invite
No email reminders

2. Calendar Surface:

No ability to open calendars from organization's directory (in classic experience known as: to add a calendar "From directory")
Public folders - No suppport to create a calendar in a public folder or manage/share it
No out of office (OOF) toast message that shows up in the form, if at least one of the attendees that you are trying to schedule for is OOF
No ability to publish calendars to an HTML link (that others can view) or an .ics endpoint (that others can subscribe to).
Weather settings - no ability to set your weather location(s)
No support for printing calendars

Fundamentals

No keyboard shortcuts + accessibility

People

Public Folders – ability for multiple people in the company to access a given folder is not yet supported

We are working to bring these features soon but you can always use them by opting out of the early version of the new Outlook on the web.

Please, give us feedback and help us prioritize our work through our UserVoice channel.

Thanks!

Gabriel

Designed for Simplicity: User experience updates to Outlook for Windows

Eugenie Burrage — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 18:56:44 GMT

The most prominent update coming to Outlook for Windows is the new Simplified Ribbon and it’s showcased with the new Coming Soon feature pane. Over the last two years we’ve been talking, concepting and co-creating with customers and are now ready to introduce an exciting number of updates that simplify the user experience, while keeping with the familiarity of Outlook. These updates are aimed at making it easier for you to get things done and focus on what matters with a customizable experience that keeps you in control.

Customize your Outlook experience with a Simplified Ribbon

Since Microsoft introduced the ribbon we’ve learned a lot about how customers use this tool in Outlook. At the top of that list is this notion that how you work is highly personal. For example, people generally use the same ten commands most of the time but still need a level of customization for that 11th, 12th and 13th command, which are all different based on a user’s personal preference and what they work on most.

The Simplified Ribbon is both easily customizable and adaptable. The single row of commands can be quickly personalized to suit your work style and preferences—simply pin or remove commands from the ribbon that are important to you. You can always click back into the classic, full ribbon to access the complete set of commands anytime. You will also find that the Simplified Ribbon is now adaptive. It scales to fit different window sizes, adjusts icon labels and moves commands out of the way and accessible via new ellipses and menu drop down experiences.

Watch this video to see the Simplified Ribbon and more updates coming to Outlook for Windows:

Focus on what matters

Many small changes in the message list help highlight the things that matter. For example, names are bolded and flagged messages stand out with a yellow background. And with a little more padding and text treatment to create a clearer visual hierarchy, scanning your inbox is easier and focusing on important messages is easier than ever.

Message subjects are more prominent in the reading pane and the header now takes up less space, leaving more room for your content.

Updates to message list and reading pane

Similarly, we made the commands you need for rich content creation available when you Pop Out your message response so you can easily access the power of the full ribbon in Outlook at any time.

And email and calendar response options, such as Reply or Accept buttons, are contextual to where you are working.

Stay organized

In the familiar folder pane, where email messages may be distributed across Favorites, Folders and Groups, special icons make each of them easy to spot. We learned that customers who frequently use Office 365 Groups needed quicker access to the group folders. In this update, we’ve elevated Groups to show up as a peer of personal folders under each account so now they will be accessible even if you hide your Folders list.

To give you more time back in your day, updates in Outlook Calendar help speed up the process of sending a meeting request. Both Required and Optional attendees can be quickly added. And with a clean, reorganized meeting request form, by setting the meeting time first, you make the suggested Location or conference rooms time-aware.

Outlook Calendar updatesThe updated Outlook for Windows experience is simpler and more customizable so you can work faster and get back to the things that matter most. Outlook helps you connect, organize and get things done. We’re excited about these changes and look forward to your feedback.

Coming Soon and the user experience updates are rolling out to customers in the Monthly Channel (Targeted) release program in the next few weeks then later rolling out more broadly to all Office 365 customers.

When you see Coming Soon, turn it On, explore the updates and let us know what you think.

To stay up-to-date, follow us on Twitter or keep an eye on the Office roadmap to see what is coming. You can also read about the updates coming to Outlook on the web.

Frequently asked questions

When will I see the changes?

These changes will start to roll out to the Office Insider program Insiders and Monthly Channel (Targeted) customers in September and then, based on customer feedback, more broadly to production for Monthly Channel customers. Coming Soon will continue to be available in Outlook for Windows throughout the roll out of the user experience updates. These updates will not be available with Outlook in Office 2019 for Windows.

Can my company control when these updates roll out?

The Coming Soon feature allows users to try the new experience any time before they roll out to production to all Office 365 customers. At any time during that period, companies can prevent their users from having the Coming Soon option through group policy administration or users can try the experience with the Coming Soon feature and turn to the classic experience at their convenience.

Once the new experience has completely rolled out to production and validated with customer feedback, the Coming Soon option will no longer be needed and the new experience will not be optional.

Why don’t I see the changes now?

If any of the following are true, you may not see the updates in Outlook for Windows:

Your company many not be part of the Office 365 Insiders or Monthly Channel Targeted program and the updates are not yet available in production, Monthly Channel.
Your company may have blocked Coming Soon through a group policy setting and the updates are not yet available in production.
You are using Outlook in Office 2013 or 2016.

Will Coming Soon always be an available option?

No, Coming Soon is designed to share significant changes that will soon roll out to Office 365 customers. The Coming Soon button and on/off toggle not be visible once those updates are fully rolled out to production and will appear again only when Microsoft plans to introduce additional, material changes in Outlook for Windows.

What if I don’t want to accept the changes?

While Coming Soon is available, customers can return to the classic experience at any time. Once the updates are fully rolled out in production, the option to return to the classic experience will no longer be available. However, the Simplified Ribbon will always be expandable and collapsible.

Are there more updates coming?

Yes, as announced in June 2018, the updates to the Office 365 and Outlook user experience are rolling out slowing over the next several months. For example, updates to Search in Outlook for Windows are expected to roll out by the end of 2018. Additional information will be forthcoming with more details closer to the roll out of additional updates.

Can administrators turn off Coming Soon?

[Updated 9/11/18] If you're an admin, you can use a regkey to hide the Coming Soon feature in Outlook for Windows. Learn more.

If Coming Soon is not available for your users to try the new user experience and provide feedback at their convenience, they will receive the updates in Outlook for Windows once we roll them out to production for all Monthly Channel customers.

An early version of the new Outlook on the web will be available through an opt-in toggle

Gabriel Valdez Malpartida — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 23:00:53 GMT

In June we announced updates to the Office 365 user experience, including a simpler and more powerful Outlook on the web, which would show up later in the summer. Starting September 10^th, we’ll roll out an opt-in toggle so users in Targeted Release can try this early version of the new web experience. Users who try this early version of the new Outlook on the web can go back to the classic experience as often as they want.

Users who are in Targeted Release will see “Try the new Outlook” next to the toggle and can opt in (and out) of the trial as often as they want. However, we also want to ensure that admins can control whether their users see this toggle.

If you’re an Office 365 admin and you don’t want your users to have access to the opt-in toggle, you need to complete the following steps prior to September 10^th, 2018:

1) Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell.

2) Review the OWA mailbox policies that have been created previously. To do this, run Get-OwaMailboxPolicy.

3) This will output all the policies that have been created. If you have multiple policies, you will want to adjust each policy that you want to block the new experience opt-in toggle.

4) Most tenants will have a single policy, and they should run the following command to turn off the toggle:

Set-OwaMailboxPolicy "Policy Name" -OutlookBetaToggleEnabled $false

After this is complete, Outlook on the web will honor the policy and not show the “Try the new Outlook” toggle.

If you want to know more about the new experience, please review this post.

We’re looking forward to you trying the early version of the new Outlook on the web.

Thanks!

New Outlook updates enable you to customize your experience and help you stay focused and organized

The Outlook Team — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 17:20:57 GMT

We’re obsessed about making things better for the millions of people who use Outlook every day and continue to advance how we introduce updates to the experience and help customers adopt change.

Last fall, we launched a beta program with Outlook.com to provide a preview of the web experience updates and an easy way to switch between the new and classic web experiences at any time. More than 10% of our users tried it out and two thirds kept it on through to the general availability launch and we received a ton of great feedback through that program that helped us understand how to deliver the right experience to you.

Today we’re pleased to announce “Coming Soon” in Outlook for Windows and an opt-in toggle in Outlook on the web that puts you in control of when you try major updates. These new features allow you to explore updates, return to the classic experience at any time, and continue to provide us with feedback.

In June, we announced Office 365 user experience updates . We are now ready to start rolling out these changes in Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web using the Coming Soon and opt-in toggle features. Building on the same guiding principles, our goal is to give you control, allowing you to try a new experience when it’s convenient, customize how you get things done, as well as surface options that are relevant and in context to how you work, all to help you get things done, faster.

Highlights of the changes coming to Outlook for Windows

Our approach is designed to help you:

Customize your experience – As a productivity powerhouse, Outlook comes loaded with many features, but we’ve learned that most of you don’t always need them all, all the time. We are giving you options to make the Outlook experience your own with the ability to simplify the ribbon, personalize your inbox, and apply additional themes.
Get things done faster – The updates make reading, composing, and taking action in emails and meetings faster. A more responsive web development framework and a modern design lets you see, read and respond to emails and meeting invitations, and attach files quicker.
Stay organized – Intelligent technology, highlights, special icons and visual changes provide a modern calendar view to help you focus on your day and week, speeds up the process of creating and sending meeting requests, and help manage your time.

These updates are coming first to customers in the Monthly Channel (Targeted) and Targeted Release program in the next few weeks. For more details about updates to Outlook on the web, go here. And for additional insight into the Outlook for Windows updates, go here.

We are looking forward to you trying the updates and giving us feedback!

Thank you!

The Outlook team

Designed to be fast - The Outlook on the web user experience gets simpler and more powerful

Gabriel Valdez Malpartida — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 18:00:54 GMT

Edit 2/8/19:

We encountered some issues with Files which prevented it from being released. We expect it to be coming soon.

Starting next week, if you are a Targeted Release customer who wants to try the early version of the new Outlook on the web, simply click on the “Try the new Outlook” toggle on the top right corner of your inbox. When you click the toggle, you’ll see all new Outlook on the web modules for Mail, Calendar, and People. Opt-in and out as often as you want.

Find the toggle on the top right of your inbox

Let’s look at some of the new features you can try when you opt in to the early version of Outlook on the web.

Search – No time to search? Outlook anticipates what you’ll need based on recent conversations and people with whom you work the most.

Updated search for Mail, Calendar, and People

Files (Files is coming soon) – Trying to find a file in your inbox can be a time-consuming exercise, to help you with that we have added a Files module that will show you all the files that you received or sent in your inbox.

Pro tip: Use Favorites to make sure you always find files from important people. Coming soon.

Use Files to find all the files and docs in your inbox

Suggested replies – The new Outlook brings intelligent technology to your inbox to save you time. Focus on what matters more and let Outlook help with you the rest. Use suggested replies when you need to respond with a short message, just a couple of clicks and off you go.

Select a response, edit it if you need to, and send!

Simplified event creation — You can now quickly add events to your calendar with updated event icons, so you can quickly identify events and see location suggestions to get address details.

Updated event icons let you quickly identify events

Smart room suggestions – Intelligent technology in Outlook now helps you find the best room for your meetings based on the attendees, time, availability, and your preferences.

Outlook will recommend rooms for you

Simplified add-in experience — We’ve simplified the way you access add-ins while giving you more control. Outlook add-ins bring your favorite apps right to your inbox, so you can accomplish tasks faster—including saving an email directly to your notebook, translating emails on the fly, or paying your friends. You can access popular apps and and services like Boomerang, Evernote, GIPHY, Gfycat, Microsoft Translator, MojiLaLa, PayPal, Trello, and more right from your inbox.

If you were using add-ins in the classic Outlook on the web experience, they will show up pinned next to mail actions or in the drop-down menu once you open an email in the new experience. You can also install more add-ins from the Office Store—simply open an email, click the drop-down menu, and select Get Add-ins. Once installed, add-ins will show up in the drop-down menu. You can also choose to pin frequently used add-ins.

More ways to use and manage groups in Outlook – Group-based collaboration, powered by the Office 365 Groups service, is an integral part of working in Outlook. We received a lot of valuable feedback on groups in the past and based on that we are excited to announce we have improved existing features such as faster and simpler group creation, richer group card, more efficient group email triage, and we are also introducing new features such as group Files view that focuses on the latest file activity and group management in the People module.

See a list of all your groups, take membership actions, or favorite a group – all in one place

Favorites makes things front and center – Many things at work are important and then there are the ones you can’t miss like an email from your manager or a project’s requests and updates. Favorites is perfect for those times, just add specific folders, people, or categories to your Favorites to keep them only a click away.

Add the things you can’t miss to Favorites

More ways to keep up with your groups - Groups cards can now be used from anywhere inside Outlook to view membership information, and group owners can take membership actions as well, or navigate to group apps or group resources such as Files, Planner, and SharePoint site.

See group information and membership with group cards

Take these features for a spin, and tell us what you think in our UserVoice channel.

Stay tuned to additional enhancements that will come over the next few months, including new and updated features. Based on your feedback, we’ll iterate, improve, refine, or discard them. To stay up-to-date, follow us on Twitter or keep an eye on the Office roadmap to see what is coming. But wait, there is more! We're also rolling out updates in Outlook for Windows.

Thank you!

Gabriel.

FAQ

Q. Who will see the toggle?

A. Organizations in Targeted Release who have not blocked the toggle

Q. Can I block the toggle?

A. Yes, if you are an Office 365 administrator you should have received a Message Center post with instructions

Q. How long will the opt-in toggle stay in Targeted Release?

A. We are driven by quality rather than a timeline, so we will release the opt-in toggle broadly when it’s ready

Q. Will I find all the classic experience features in the early version of the new Outlook on the web?

A. No. Since this is an early version of the new Outlook on the web, there will be some features not yet available on 9/10. You can read this article to learn more.

Q. What if you are missing a feature I really need?

A. You can always switch back to the classic Outlook on the web as many times as you need. You should also let us know in our UserVoice channel.

Q. Where can I learn more about the changes?

A. This support article is a good place to start.

Q. How do I join the Targeted Release program?

A. You can start here.

Centralized Deployment for Outlook add-ins is now generally available

Neha Bhaskar — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 15:06:52 GMT

Outlook add-ins bring you the business apps you already use, right in email so you can accomplish tasks faster. Earlier this year we began rolling out a preview of Centralized Deployment for Outlook add-ins, to enable administrators to quickly and easily deploy add-ins to their organization and users. Today, we are bringing Centralized Deployment for Outlook add-ins out of preview, and making it generally available to Office 365 commercial customers. With Centralized Deployment, administrators can deploy Outlook add-ins to individual users, groups or an organization with ease, right from the Office 365 administration center or using PowerShell scripts. Both Microsoft AppSource add-ins as well as custom add-ins built internally for use within your organization can be deployed using Centralized Deployment to tenants worldwide.

For more details and frequently asked questions, please refer to our TechCommunity post at https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Outlook-Blog/Centralized-Deployment-for-Outlook-add-ins-will-now-be-available/ba-p/161164

Rich contact details in Outlook for iOS and Android helps you collaborate and get things done

Eugenie Burrage — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 22:33:35 GMT

Knowing who’s who in your company is key for collaboration and getting things done. So we're excited to bring the details of your organization to contact cards in Outlook for iOS. Now, by connecting your company data with Azure Active Directory, Outlook for iOS users can quickly see who’s who at any time. Who does your contact report to? Who reports to your contact? And better still, who are your contact’s other colleagues? Knowing this might help you in a pinch if your contact is out of the office, for example. Reaching out to other colleagues can help you take care of business.

All of this insight is quickly available whether you search for a contact or tap an email address in a message to open their contact card details, you will have the option to Show Organization information for all the people in your company. No need to go the Global Address List on your desktop to know who’s who - access that information exactly when you need it on your iOS device with Outlook!

We also know how important it is to keep your contact details current and connected to the apps and services you need to get things done. So we’ve made a few additional improvements to contact management features.

On iOS devices, you can now save your contacts in Outlook for iOS with your Outlook.com or Gmail account. But since combining your contact lists can sometimes result in duplicate entries, we’ve also introduced a process to reconcile and clean up duplicate contacts. With your contact list clean and ready to go, you’ll know who’s calling with an accurate caller display (Caller ID).
For Android phone and tablet users, adding a contact from your company’s global address list to Outlook for Android now includes the little picture (or Avatar). This way, with Sync Contacts turned on in your Office 365 or Outlook.com accounts, your contact’s image will show when they call your Android device.
Lastly, coming soon in both Outlook for iOS and Android, deleting a contact from Outlook will also remove them from your native contacts app. Just make sure your Outlook settings have Sync Contacts in Android and Save Contacts in iOS turned on.

We are gradually rolling out all these changes in the coming days and will continue over the next several weeks.

For more information and FAQs about the new contact management features and enhancements, please go to Help & Feedback in your Outlook for iOS and Android app Settings.

The Outlook for iOS and Android architecture is FedRAMP compliant for US Office 365 GCC customers

Eugenie Burrage — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 20:03:38 GMT

Microsoft is pleased to announce the updated architecture of Outlook for iOS and Android meets all the FedRAMP requirements which are FISMA compliant and based on the NIST 800-53 rev3. The security requirements have been approved by a third-party assessment organization and passed the independent audit assessment which gives Office 365 Government Community Cloud (GCC) customers the ability to adopt Outlook for iOS and Android.

This update brings the necessary components of the Outlook for iOS and Android architecture into the accreditation boundary of Office 365 and enables GCC customers to accelerate the adoption of this secure mobile email and calendar solution.

With controls in place to ensure mailbox data transfer and storage security practices are consistent with the most advance cloud solutions, US Office 365 GCC customers can also confidently use mobile application management tools such as Microsoft Intune to manage device access and mailbox policies for their mobile users.

Continuously enhanced with advanced capabilities across email, search and calendar, Outlook is the connected to the apps and services to help focus on what’s important and get more done. For GCC users, it’s the best way to experience Office 365 on your mobile device.

FAQ

Q: Who can use the Office 365 Government Cloud Community for Outlook for iOS and Android?

A: All customers with US Office 365 GCC tenants are eligible to use the new architecture. This includes:

US GCC customers who are new to Office 365
US GCC existing customers who previously were blocked from using Outlook for iOS and Android
US GCC customers who obtained a waiver from being blocked and now want their users to connect via the Azure Government Community Cloud.

Q: When will GCC users be able to set up "GCC Mode" in Outlook on their mobile device?

A: The Outlook for iOS and Android app that supports the new architecture is rolling out in the iTunes app store and the Google Play store this week.

Q: How will I find out if all my organization’s users are using Outlook for iOS and Android?

A: Customers can look at individual user’s status by accessing the user’s Mobile Device details from the Exchange Admin Center in Office 365 or via PowerShell. If a user’s Mobile Device details show ‘Client Type = REST’ or ‘User Agent = Outlook-iOS/2.0 OR Outlook-Android/2.0’, this signifies the user is using Outlook on their mobile device.

Q: If our organization was previously whitelisted and using the public Azure instance, what will the end user experience look like when enabling the new GCC mode?

A: When switching to GCC mode, existing accounts will be removed. Users will need to re-add their accounts the next time they open the Outlook app.

Q: Will Office 365 GCC customers be able to add an account to Outlook for iOS and Android in non-GCC mode?

A: No. GCC users will continue to be blocked from adding accounts with Outlook for iOS and Android as that process routes data via the public Azure cloud instance. Controls are in place to ensure all GCC mobile users use the “GCC Mode” to connect Outlook with their Office 365 account.

Q: Once a user enables “GCC Mode” can they add an additional Office 365 account?

No, Office 365 Government Community Cloud customers may only have one account connected to Outlook for iOS and Android from a single Office 365 instance. This means that these customers cannot have a mailbox that is located on a different Office 365 tenant, from either the public Office 365 instance or the Office 365 Government Community Cloud tenant within the same Outlook for iOS and Android app on the same device.

Q: What is the experience for Office 365 US Government Community customers who are already using the Outlook app today?

A: The administrators of Office 365 U.S. Government Community tenants who may have been granted permission to use the public Azure environment for Outlook for iOS and Android should contact Support to get their domains removed from the whitelist and direct their users to follow the instructions to enable “GCC Mode”. Instructions can be found here.

Q: What is the experience for Office 365 US Government Community customers who are not already using the Outlook app?

A: In our new Office 365-GCC based architecture, data passes through Microsoft Azure Government Community datacenters within the United States and fully complies with the control commitments in the FedRAMP compliance package for Office 365 US Government Community.

GCC customers will no longer be blocked from using Outlook for iOS and Android and the app now supports a new “GCC Mode” which should be enabled in the app. Instructions can be found here.

Q: What is the experience for US Government Defense customers using Outlook for iOS & Android?

A: Customers with tenants in US Government Defense are blocked and unable to connect to their Office 365 mailboxes via Outlook for iOS & Android. They will continue to be blocked until we deliver support for these instances.

A new architecture for Exchange hybrid customers enables Outlook mobile and security

Eugenie Burrage — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 18:24:22 GMT

We’re announcing a new architecture for Exchange Server and Office 365 hybrid customers that unlocks Enterprise Mobility and Security (EMS) capabilities for Outlook for iOS and Android. With Hybrid Modern Authentication, Exchange customers can combine the power of Outlook with Azure Conditional Access and Intune App Protection Policies to securely manage corporate messaging on mobile devices.

Once Exchange customers with servers on-premises establish a hybrid configuration with the Microsoft Cloud and enable Hybrid Modern Authentication with Office 365, Outlook for iOS and Android authenticates against Azure Active Directory and synchronizes the mailbox data in Exchange Online – the Outlook mobile client never connects with the on-premises Exchange environment – unlocking the power of Office 365, Outlook for iOS and Android and Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS).

Architected in the Microsoft Cloud, Outlook for iOS and Android is fully integrated with Azure Active Directory and Microsoft Intune. This means that organizations can enforce conditional access as well as application and device management policies while experiencing the richness of Outlook for iOS and Android.

Now Exchange Server customers with hybrid modern authentication can use the cloud-backed capabilities of Outlook such as Focused Inbox, intelligent Search and enhanced time management to achieve more on their mobile device.

A few capabilities of EMS include:

Selective wipe—Remove corporate email data and leave personal data intact to facilitate a “bring your own device” (BYOD) approach to phones and tablets.
App restriction policies—Restrict actions such as cut, copy, paste and “save as” between Intune-managed apps and personal apps on a device to reduce the risk of corporate data loss. App restriction policies are available for use on both mobile device management (MDM) enrolled devices and on unmanaged devices, through Intune’s App Protection policies.
Conditional access—Ensure that your corporate email can only be accessed on phones and tablets that meet secure access policies set by IT such as device or app management policy enforcement or Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) user scenarios. And with Azure Identity Protection capabilities of EMS, you can ensure these conditional access policies grant or deny access based on risks associated with each unique identity.

For the initial roll out, Exchange Server customers can contact their Microsoft account team, customer sales and services (CSS) or technical account managers to initiate the set up and deployment process for this enterprise mobility and security solution with Outlook for iOS and Android.

For more technical information and licensing requirements, see Using Hybrid Modern Authentication with Outlook for iOS and Android.

Sharing Office 365 Room's availability to external users

Welly Lee — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 02:37:39 GMT

You maybe sharing meeting rooms with your partners and they can use your room when it is not used. The following steps shows you how to share the room with people outside your company:

Preparation Steps (done by administrator)

1. Add delegate access to people managing the room in your company

From Admin Center > Resources > Rooms & equipment, locate the room you would like to manage and edit Delegates to add the person in your company to share the room's calendar.

2. Edit exchange settings for the room and give the person a Full Access rights to the room

Sharing Room's calendar (done by the room delegate)

1. From the delegate's account, switch to the room's account

Logon with delegate's account, navigate to the outlook calendar, then open the account (click the profile picture on the upper right corner). Click on "open another mailbox" option.

2. Search and select the room's account which has been delegated to

3. Navigate to the calendar and click Share

Enter the email address of the person to share (note: only Microsoft's email account including Office 365, outlook.com) and select the share option

Viewing shared room's calendar

1. The external user will receive an email invitation to view the calendar. Click accept and share calendar.

2. Navigate to the calendar view to see the room's availability

Your favorite email folders and groups now in Outlook for iOS

Eugenie Burrage — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 15:41:47 GMT

With favorite folders or Office 365 Groups, Outlook for iOS helps keep what’s most important to you close at hand.

Now you can add, remove and reorder favorites right from your mobile device. And whether you manage your favorites groups and folders from Outlook for iOS, Outlook for Windows on your PC -- or even tag a folder as a favorite in Outlook on the Web -- we sync your favorite items across your most used Outlook experiences.

Expect to see this update was we roll it out in Outlook for iOS in the coming weeks.

Users love the in-app Help and Feedback so we encourage you to learn more directly from the app if you’re on the go but here are just a few questions you might want to read now about this new favorite feature.

FAQs

Q: Which Outlook items can I add to my favorites?

A: You can now add a folder and an Office 365 Group to your Outlook favorites. Favorite contacts will be coming soon!

Q: How do I add a folder to my favorites?

A: A folder can be added to your Outlook favorites by simply tapping the edit icon in your sidebar, and then tapping the star right next to the folder you want to add to your favorites list. The star then becomes filled indicating that the favorite has been added.

To remove a favorite from the list, tap the filled star next to the folder name or group and it will be removed from the list.

Tap the done (check icon) to exit edit mode.

Q: How do I add a group to my favorites?

A: To add an Office 365 Group to your favorites in Outlook for iOS, navigate to an email within the group, or search for the group name in the search tab. You can then tap the name or picture of the group to reveal the group card. Tap the star on the top right to add this to your favorite.

To remove, just tap the star again, or manage it from the edit menu in your side bar.

Q: How do I add a contact to my favorites?

A: Favorite contacts are not currently supported on Outlook for iOS , but should be coming soon!

Q: How can I reorder my favorites list?

A: Tap the edit icon on the top of the sidebar, press and hold the three lines to the right of the item you want to reorder, and drag in the list for your desired order.

Q: I added a favorite in Outlook for Windows, when will it sync with my Outlook mobile app?

A: Instantly! If you do not see your favorites syncing, please close Outlook for iOS and then reopen it.

Q: How do I move an email from my Inbox to one of my favorite folders?

A: To move an email from your inbox or any other folder to a favorite folder, long tap on that email to reveal the move option. Tap on Move button and select the favorite folder, which are displayed on the top of the list.

Q: My folders are in a new order! What happened?

A: With the addition of favorite folders and groups to Outlook for iOS, you might notice that your folders are in a new order. If you have favorites, you’ll see a favorites section at the top of your sidebar.

You can add favorites through the pencil icon near the top of your sidebar. This will keep all your most important folders, groups at the top where you can easily access them.

Q: It seems like a folder disappeared from my folder list! What happened?

A: If this folder was marked as a favorite in a different Outlook experience, it should appear at the top of your folder list in your new favorites section.

Outlook for Mac adds improved signature editor in Insider Fast

Vivek Kumar (SVC) — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 23:18:30 GMT

We're excited to introduce an updated and improved signature editing experience for our Insider Fast users starting in version 16.12 (180314).

As before, to open the signature editor, navigate to Outlook > Preferences > Signatures, and either create a new signature (by clicking on the + button) or edit an existing one (by clicking on the Edit button).

With this update you will now be presented with a larger compose window -- with a variety of formatting controls as well as the ability to insert images, links, and tables -- to help you fine tune your signature exactly to your liking! You can also add alt text to images directly in the editor.

We would love to hear from you as we make improvements in Insider Fast, so please provide feedback and report issues via  Help > Contact Support. If you would like to see other enhancements in Outlook for Mac, please vote for your feature request via  Help > Suggest a Feature. 

OWA mobile apps to be retired in May

Eugenie Burrage — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 00:21:56 GMT

Today we are announcing the retirement of OWA for iPhone, iPad and Android. For the last several years Microsoft has focused on delivering an effortless user experience and bolstering security in the native Outlook app for iOS and Android devices. We’ve used your feedback to make Outlook an award-winning app and the best way to experience Office 365 features on a mobile device. Now we’re helping all users to migrate to Outlook while retiring the OWA mobile apps:

In April 2018, the OWA for iPhone, iPad and Android apps will no longer be available for download from Apple’s iTunes store and the Google Play store.
Also in April, OWA mobile app users will see a recurring in-app message notifying them of the date when the app will be retired, with a link to download Outlook for iOS or Android.
On May 15, 2018, the OWA mobile apps will stop working. Office 365 users who attempt to open them will be greeted with a message directing them to download Outlook for iOS or Android.

It is easy for users to move over to the Outlook app for iOS or Android. To learn how, see the step by step instructions here. If you are an Office 365 administrator and received a notice today in the Office 365 Message Center, it means one or more people in your organization are still using the OWA mobile app. If you don’t receive a notice in Message Center, then you don’t need to take any administrative action. Should you need additional details and support regarding the retirement plans of the OWA mobile apps, please refer to this article.

Outlook for iOS and Android has an architecture fully powered by the Microsoft Cloud and has 4.5+ star ratings in the app stores. And as we streamline our mobile portfolio, we’ll be able to further focus our efforts to deliver on our promise of the best-in-class, enterprise-grade mail, calendar and search experience and the best way to experience Office 365 features on a mobile device with Outlook.

Outlook for Mac now supports Google Calendar and Contacts in Insider Slow

Sunder Raman — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 23:19:54 GMT

Support for Google Calendar and Contact has been available in Insider Fast for several months now. With the rollout of version 16.11 (180305), this functionality will slowly start rolling out to Insider Slow audience as well.

Previous announcement: https://blogs.office.com/en-us/2017/03/01/outlook-2016-for-mac-adds-support-for-google-calendar-and-contacts/

We would love to hear from you as we make improvements in Insider Fast, so please provide feedback and report issues via Help > Contact Support. If you would like to see other enhancements in Outlook for Mac, please vote for your feature request via Help > Suggest a Feature.

Outlook for Mac adds new calendar event card in Insider Fast

Zan Chu — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 23:20:52 GMT

 Introducing the new calendar event card. With just one click, view event details and take quick action when needed. Now you can quickly respond to an invitation, join a meeting or even get more information about the organizer though the new event card.

Previously, you needed to double click on an event to respond to an invitation or join an online meeting then use the command ribbon to take action. The process and streamlined design is now simplified and saves time.

Just click a calendar event to access the details and instantly respond if necessary

Edit your response anytime

Join an online meeting with a single click

…And as a bonus - you can check the organizer's contact card directly from the Event Card.

Click the contact photo to view new contact card

The new calendar event card is available in  Insider Fast  starting in version 16.11 (180220)  and requires activation via  Office 365 subscription.

We would love to hear from you as we make improvements in Insider Fast, so please provide feedback and report issues via  Help > Contact Support. If you would like to see other enhancements in Outlook for Mac, please vote for your feature request via  Help > Suggest a Feature. 

Centralized Deployment for Outlook add-ins will now be generally available

Harshit Kumar — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 12:59:10 GMT

Update (June 27th 2018): Centralized Deployment for Outlook add-ins is out of preview now and is generally available to Office 365 commercial customers.

Update (April 20th 2018): Centralized Deployment for Outlook add-ins is now available in preview to Office 365 commercial customers.

Outlook add-ins enable customers to access their favorite apps right in email to get more done, faster. As we bring more add-ins in Outlook to help users be more productive, we want to ensure that Office 365 administrators have tools to quickly and easily deploy add-ins. Last year, we announced the availability of Centralized Deployment for Word, Excel and PowerPoint add-ins. Starting February 26, 2018, we will begin rolling out Centralized Deployment for Outlook add-ins, initially in preview, to Office 365 commercial customers.

How to get started with Centralized Deployment for Outlook add-ins?

Administrators can deploy Outlook add-ins to individual users, groups or an organization with ease, right from the Office 365 administration center or using PowerShell scripts. Both Microsoft AppSource add-ins as well as custom add-ins built internally for use within your organization can be deployed using Centralized Deployment to tenants worldwide.

To deploy an add-in, go to Settings > Services & add-ins in the Office 365 admin center.

Clicking “Upload add-in” will take you to the Centralized Deployment page and then you can choose to deploy an add-in from the Office Store/AppSource or from a manifest file

You choose the right visibility for the add-in by either enabling it by default for everyone or give end users options to enable or disable it. You can choose to deploy the add-in to users, groups or your entire organization.

For more details and step by step instructions, review the documentation on Centralized Deployment.

We hope that Centralized Deployment makes it easier for you to deploy add-ins in your organization and look forward to your feedback in improving the experience further.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Can I target users and groups in Centralized Deployment?

A. Centralized Deployment supports deploying to users in top level Office 365 Groups, distribution lists and security groups. Centralized Deployment is not supported for nested groups.

Q. Which Outlook clients can I deploy to using Centralized Deployment?
A. Centralized Deployment can be used to deploy Outlook add-ins in commercial Office 365 tenants across Outlook on the web, Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2016 for Windows, Outlook 2016 for Mac as well Outlook for iOS and Android.

Q. What languages and worldwide Office data centers are supported?
A. Today, we have worldwide support for Centralized Deployment for all supported Office languages. We also support the Microsoft Office sovereign datacenters for Germany.

Q. What type of deployment telemetry is available
A. Telemetry for IT administrators to see data about add-in deployments and usage will be available shortly in the Office 365 admin center. Developers telemetry for add-in deployments is available via the Office ISV Seller Dashboard.

Q. As an administrator, how do I manage access to add-ins for my organization?
A. For easy deployment of add-ins to users, groups or your organization, we recommend administrators use Centralized Deployment. For other access controls like preventing users from accessing certain add-ins, refer to the Add-ins for Outlook TechNet article.

Q. Will add-in deployment via Exchange Admin Center still be supported?
A. Yes, add-in deployments via Exchange Admin Center will continue to be supported. However, we recommend customers use Centralized Deployment to deploy add-ins moving forward.

Q: When can I expect this feature to be live for my tenant for Outlook add-ins?

A: We’re are rolling out the feature over the next few weeks. Note that as the roll-out progresses, the admin portal may show an option to deploy Outlook add-ins, however, the feature may not be fully enabled. For now, you should continue to use the Exchange Admin Center to deploy Outlook add-ins.

Update (April 20th 2018): Centralized Deployment for Outlook add-ins is now available in preview to Office 365 commercial customers.

Update (June 27th 2018): Centralized Deployment for Outlook add-ins is out of preview now and is generally available to Office 365 commercial customers.

Outlook for Mac adds new contact card in Insider Fast

Jeffrey Kalvass — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 23:21:26 GMT

Have you ever read an email and wanted to respond quickly to the sender with an IM or call instead of email reply? When writing an email, after adding a recipient, have you opened the address book to search for his or her manager to add as Cc?

With the redesigned contact card experience, your contact's key details are now front and center, increasing productivity by reducing the distance to find contact and organization details.

Click on any name in your messages or events to access email and IM addresses, phone numbers, and other details, such as organization chart. It's now easier than ever to communicate with your contacts, including Skype for Business direct calling, IM, and video calling. With organization details now in the contact card, you can quickly get a birds-eye view of your team organization with easy navigation within the card.

Viewing contact details

The new contact card is available in Insider Fast starting in version 16.11 (180214) and requires activation via Office 365 subscription.

View the new card from the contact photo or contact name, using either mouse click or space bar key:

Click contact photoClick contact name

We would love to hear from you as we make improvements in Insider Fast, so please provide feedback and report issues via Help > Contact Support. If you would like to see other enhancements in Outlook for Mac, please vote for your feature request via Help > Suggest a Feature.

Known issues:

Contact photo in the new card may differ from the photo in the message or event
The new card doesn't have alias or local phone number fields seen in the old card
The old card is showing for distribution lists
The new card is not supported for macOS Yosemite (verison 10.10)

Outlook for Mac adds new time zone features in Insider Fast

Zan Chu — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 19:39:35 GMT

Outlook for Mac is now more powerful for managing your time across different time zones. We're now shipping two of our most-requested calendar features: display second time zone on Calendar grid, and allow setting of start/end time zones in events.

These features are now available to Insider Fast starting from version 16.11(180214). Enabling second time zone in Calendar grid requires an Office 365 subscription.

You can new add a second time zone on the calendar grid so you can easily refer. To show the second time zone, go to Outlook > Preferences > Calendar, or by right-clicking the grid to see the second time zone options :

To schedule an event with a start time and end time being in different time zones (for example, a flight across time zones), simply toggle on the "Time Zone" option via Ribbon, or via menu Message > Time Zone:

We would love to hear from you, so please provide feedback and report bugs via Help > Contact Support. If you would like to see enhancements and additions to this feature, (or Outlook for Mac as a whole), please vote for the idea on our UserVoice site (Help > Suggest a Feature).

FAQs:

Q. I am on the latest version of Outlook for Mac 16.11 (180214), but I am not seeing the new features.

A: We are gradually rolling out the release of second time zone on Calendar grid, it will be fully released to all Insider Fast by 2/15. So stay tuned if you don't see the new feature for now. Also make sure you activated Outlook for Mac with an Office 365 subscription license.

Outlook for Mac now supports swipe gesture customization in Insider Fast

Vivek Kumar (SVC) — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 19:26:08 GMT

You can now customize the action for swipe left and swipe right in Outlook Preferences.

These preferences will also allow you to turn off swipe gestures completely.

This feature is available in Insider Fast starting in version 16.11 (180214) and requires activation via Office 365 subscription.

To do this open Outlook Preferences (Outlook > Preferences) and click on Reading:

Outlook > Preferences > Reading

At the bottom of this section, you can change the swipe gestures to one of the following.

Delete
Archive
Mark as Read
Flag
None

To turn gestures completely off, simply set both swipe left and swipe right to None.

Please provide feedback and report issues via Help > Contact Support. If you would like to see other enhancements in Outlook for Mac, please vote for your feature request via Help > Suggest a Feature.

Updated: Use Groups in the Outlook mobile app; Outlook Groups app is retiring

Ethan Li — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 22:18:02 GMT

Last April, we introduced native support for Office 365 Groups in the Outlook mobile app. We’ve been improving the group experiences in the Outlook mobile app ever since, and today we’re pleased to share some new ways to get more done with Office 365 Groups right from Outlook.

In the next few months, we’ll be bringing you the ability to access all files that are stored in groups’ document libraries inside the Outlook mobile app.
We’ll also be bringing roaming favorites so you can pin groups, folders, and more to your navigation pane for easier access across Outlook in all your devices.

These enhancements complement the work we’ve been doing over the past nine months inside the Outlook mobile app, including group creation and editing, which shipped late last year, as well as the ability you see your groups’ recent files, which we introduced earlier this year. This work is a part of our continuing efforts to advance Microsoft 365 as the universal toolkit for teamwork and complements similar investments that we’re making in Teams and Yammer.

By embedding groups functionality into the Outlook mobile app, we’re investing in group experiences to make teamwork effortless, while removing the need to install and use a separate app. Office 365 customers who are using the standalone Outlook Groups app should make plans to transition away in the next few months. On March 26, the app will be removed from the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and Microsoft Store. Then, the app will stop working on May 1, 2018. Between mid-March and May 1, users that have the app may continue using it, but after May 1, the app will not function.

For more details about the retirement of the app, please refer to this article. If you are an admin and received a notice today in the Office 365 Message Center, it means one or more people in your organization are using the Outlook Groups app. If you didn’t receive a notice in Message Center, you don’t need to take any action.

Thank you to those of you who used the Outlook Groups app over the years. Your feedback has helped to shape the Groups experience in Outlook—and helps us understand many other ways we can improve Groups experiences across Office 365. Please keep the suggestions flowing over in our UserVoice site.

—Groups Team

Learn more about groups in the Outlook mobile app here.

Learn what features are coming to the Outlook mobile app here.

Update: The mid-March date for removal of the Groups app is now set to March 26.

Outlook for Mac adds new authentication flow for Google IMAP in Insider Fast

Sunder Raman — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 21:02:46 GMT

Last updated: 6/18/2018

6/18/2018: This feature is being slowly rolled out to Production beginning in 16.14 (18061302).

Original post:

With the release of the Insider Fast version 16.11 (18013000), Outlook for Mac now supports OAuth for authentication for Google Accounts configured via IMAP. This feature will start rolling out slowly to our Insider Fast users.

If you have a Google Account added via IMAP, you'll be asked to authenticate using the new workflow. The two key benefits are:

No longer need to set “Allow less secure apps” for account
No longer need app password when 2-Step Verification is enabled

Previous authentication flow:

Basic authentication dialog

New authentication flow:

Clicking on "Sign in to Google" (above) will launch the web browser to complete authentication.

Browser sign in

We would love to hear from you, so please provide feedback and report bugs, via Help > Contact Support. If you would like to see enhancements and additions to this feature, (or Outlook for Mac as a whole), please vote for the idea on our UserVoice site (Help > Suggest a Feature).

6/18/2018: Please ensure the "User name" field contains the full email address and matches "E-mail address" field in Account preferences for your Google Account configured via IMAP.

An improved add-in store experience inside Outlook

Neha Bhaskar — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 16:47:50 GMT

Outlook add-ins enable you to access apps and services you most commonly use - whether that's customer relationship management software, a work management service or a translator tool, right in email, so you can accomplish more, faster.

Today we are announcing an improved add-in store experience within Outlook, with a redesigned layout, improved search experience and quick start guides, so you can find the right add-ins more quickly and easily.

Redesigned layout and quick start guides helps you to quickly review all available add-ins, with a brief description. To enable an add-in, just click "Add", and the add-in will be installed. You can also access quick start guides that help you get more information on how to use the add-in.
The redesigned add-in store within Outlook with the new tiles layoutThe "My add-ins" tab shows all add-ins installed by you including store and custom side loaded add-ins. The â€œAdmin managedâ€ tab will show all the add-ins deployed for your organization by your administrator, which you can choose to install.
Improved search: We have improved relevancy of search results in the add-in store. Now, you can quickly search all available add-ins by add-in name or keyword. For example, if you type in a keyword like "contact" and the top related add-ins will be available for you at a glance.Search by keyword like "contact" toquickly view top related add-ins at a glance

You can also choose to view all add-ins related to that keyword.

We hope you like the new store experience in Outlook. We are eager to hear your feedback and recommendations on what other apps you'd like to see in Outlook at add-in store Uservoice .

FAQ

Q. Which Outlook clients will the add-in store updates be available to?

A. These updates are being rolled out over the next few days. They will be available to customers using Outlook 2016 or Outlook 2013 for Windows, Outlook 2016 for Mac and Outlook on the web with Office 365 or Outlook.com mailboxes.

Outlook for Mac now highlights search terms in Insider Fast

Faisal Jeelani — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 23:23:06 GMT

Ever tried searching for something and wished Outlook would highlight your search term in the item list and preview pane? Well wonder no more as its here! With the release of 16.10 (180109), Outlook for Mac now supports highlighting search terms. This feature is available to all Outlook for Mac users on the latest Insider Fast builds.

Item List -

Preview Pane -

We would love to hear from you, so please do provide feedback and report bugs, via Help > Contact Support. If you would like to see enhancements and additions to this feature, (or Mac Outlook as a whole), please vote for the idea on our UserVoice site (Help > Suggest a Feature)

Outlook for Mac adds new UI/UX improvements in Insider Slow

Faisal Jeelani — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 23:23:37 GMT

With the release of 16.9 (180107) to Insider Slow, we have a few surprises in store for you! While these are small little updates, they are delightful enough to call out here. Outlook for Mac now allows you to -

Change the text display size
Use swipe gestures on your trackpad to triage
View a nice little message when you have no items in a folder

Resize display text

Is the display text in Outlook too big or too small? Were you frustrated that you could only resize the text in the Reading Pane? Well fret no more! Go to Outlook > Preferences > Fonts. You will now see a slider to change the text display size! NOTE: This feature is only available on MacOS El Capitan and above.

Swipe gestures for triage

Have a MacBook, or a trackpad paired with your Mac? Missed being able to easily triage items? Well now you can! A two finger swipe to the right or the left when the mouse is over an email in the item list, will give you the option to either delete the message (or conversation) or archive it. Details on how to use the feature are here. NOTE: This feature is available to Office 365 subscribers only.

Empty folder messages

When you reach Inbox Zero, ever thought it looked a bit drab? Well, we agree! So now you have some messages to let you know the folder is empty.

Outlook for Mac now supports creating tables in Insider Slow

Sunder Raman — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 23:23:57 GMT

With the release of 16.9.18010702, Outlook for Mac now supports creating tables during compose.

Please see the following post for details about this feature: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Outlook-Blog/Insider-Fast-Outlook-for-Mac-now-supports-creating-tables/ba-p/137384

If you see an issue or have feedback, please contact us via Help > Contact Support

Outlook for Mac now supports creating Office 365 Groups in Insider Fast

Faisal Jeelani — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 23:24:19 GMT

The Outlook & Groups team is hard at work to continuously bring new Office 365 group capabilities to Outlook for Mac. You can now create a group, starting with the 16.9 (171226) release! Groups in Outlook for Mac is only available to Office 365 subscribers.

The create group command can be found in the Outlook menu, under File > New > Group.

You can create a group in 3 easy steps:

Note that this feature respects the company policies set by your administrators. If you cannot find the create group command, then this capability might not be enabled for you. Please talk to your IT department for assistance.

Outlook for Mac now supports creating tables in Insider Fast

Vivek Kumar (SVC) — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 23:25:05 GMT

We are very excited to announce that the ability to create and tables is now available in Outlook for Mac Insider Fast, starting with the 16.9 (171210) release! Everything that you can do with tables in Microsoft Word, you can now do in Outlook.

In order to insert a table, open a new compose window and click on the Table command in the ribbon.

Once you have inserted the table in the compose area, and your table is selected, you will see two new tabs in the compose window ribbon - Table Design and Layout. Commands in these two tabs will allow you to tailor the table just the way you want to!

We know a lot of users have been waiting patiently for this feature so we are very happy to be able to finally roll this out. We're still ironing out some bugs so if you see an issue or if you just have feedback, please contact us via Help > Contact Support

If you would like to see enhancements and additions to this feature, (or Mac Outlook as a whole), please vote for the idea on our UserVoice site (Help > Suggest a Feature)

Update on Focused Inbox and our plans for Clutter

Jon Orton — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 17:29:32 GMT

In July 2016 we announced that Focused Inbox, a new feature in Outlook that helps you cut through the noise of email to focus on what matters most, would be coming to Office 365 customers. Focused Inbox first rolled out to customers who use modern authentication, and earlier this month we added support for basic authentication. This means that Focused Inbox is now available to all Office 365 customers on the Monthly Channel of Office 365 ProPlus. If you aren’t seeing it yet, be sure your Outlook version is updated to build 16.0.8730 Version 1711 or greater. Focused Inbox will be available to customers on the Semi-Annual Channel in the March 2018 Semi-Annual Targeted release, and the July 2018 Semi-Annual release, according to that channel’s standard schedule.

With Focused Inbox now rolled out, we’d like to share more about our plans for Clutter. As we mentioned in July, Focused Inbox is the long-term replacement for Clutter. It carries forward Clutter’s capabilities but removes the need to visit a separate folder to check your less-actionable messages. Because Clutter and Focused Inbox use the same algorithms for sorting messages, there are no changes to how email is classified, just a better user experience.

We’ll continue to make Clutter available to Office 365 customers until January 31, 2020. To prepare for Clutter’s eventual retirement, we’ve turned the feature off by default for new users. It’s also deactivated for those with extremely low usage (less than 12 emails per month being moved to the Clutter folder), however they can re-enable Clutter at any time, if desired.

If your organization is using Clutter today, the process for transitioning to Focused Inbox depends on what version of Outlook you are using.

Subscription version of Outlook (Outlook 2016 as part of Office 365 ProPlus or Office 365 Business): As users in your organization update Outlook to the latest version, those who currently use Clutter will be prompted to give Focused Inbox a try. If they decide to switch, Clutter will be turned off automatically for that user—no administrator action is required. If they don’t switch, messages will continue to move to the Clutter folder until the January 2020 end of service date arrives. As an administrator you can also activate Focused Inbox for your whole organization rather than giving individual users the choice. See the resources at the end of this post for details.

Perpetual version of Outlook (Outlook 2016 MSI or earlier version): These versions of Outlook do not support Focused Inbox. To transition from Clutter to Focused Inbox, you can upgrade to Office 365 ProPlus (available today) or Outlook 2019, which is scheduled to be released in the second half of 2018 and will include support for Focused Inbox. If you don’t upgrade Outlook before January 2020, messages will stop being moved to the Clutter folder, and will revert to being placed in the inbox.

For more information and FAQs, including how to manage Focused Inbox and Clutter for your organization, please refer to these resources:

Blog: Outlook helps you focus on what matters to you
Blog: Managing Focused Inbox in Office 365 and Outlook
Help article: Configure Focused Inbox for everyone in your organization (includes content on configuring Clutter options for your organization)

UPDATED (5/9/19) - Outlook for Mac now supports sending items to OneNote in Insider Fast

Faisal Jeelani — Thu, 09 May 2019 23:18:10 GMT

UPDATE 5/9/2019
Outlook for Mac has been working closely with the OneNote for Mac team to move to the new OneNote add-in that is based on the Office add-ins framework. Over this quarter, this add-in will roll out to customers in Production! This feature will allow you to send your mails and meetings to OneNote.

With this new add-in rolling out, the existing functionality in Insider Fast, that this article talks about, will be replaced. The new add-in will appear in the ribbon, grouped with the rest of the add-ins that you use today.

Thanks!

The Outlook for Mac team

---

With the release of 16.7 (171029), we are finally addressing one of the top requested features in our UserVoice site - Mac users are getting the ability to send their emails and meetings to OneNote! The Send to OneNote button allows you to select any notebook/section across all your accounts, allowing you to archive and access your Outlook content where and when you want it.

We are really excited to release this feature to our loyal fans in Insider Fast, and plan on rolling it out to everyone soon.

Importantly, this feature will be available to Office 365 subscribers only.

How do I use this feature?

When viewing an email or meeting, click on the OneNote icon in the ribbon to get started -
Sign in to OneNote using your work or Microsoft account or select the account you would like to use -
Select the notebook and section you want to send your Outlook item to -

(NOTE: you can also change the account that you would like to send to in this dialog)
And voila! Your item has now been sent to OneNote. You can use the link in this dialog to open it up in OneNote.

Known Issues

The sent date may not respect your current time zone
Plain text emails may have missing / malformed characters
Sending an email or meeting to a password protected section is not currently supported
‘To’ and ‘From’ email addresses in the page header may include a leading ‘<’ character

Problems or Suggestions?

We value your feedback, if you have any issues or bugs to report, please do so by contacting our in-app support (Help > Contact Support)

If you would like to see enhancements and additions to this feature, (or Mac Outlook as a whole), please vote for the idea on our UserVoice site (Help > Suggest a Feature)

Office 365 Groups in Outlook recap from Microsoft Ignite 2017

Krish Gali — Fri, 27 Oct 2017 04:59:49 GMT

At Microsoft Ignite in Orlando, we spent time talking about the top benefits of groups in Outlook and provided some real-world use cases of how our customers are using it. Today, from small businesses to large global enterprises, millions of people are using groups in Outlook for teamwork.

Here is a summary of these benefits and links to sessions delivered at Ignite to learn.

1. Familiarity and ubiquity of Email - It is estimated that approximately half the world's population uses email. A common use case for many of our customers is to work together with people inside and outside their organization in a safe and secure environment. Since there is no learning curve involved, our customers are instead using the time to get some real work done efficiently. To enable this, we released guest functionality last year and since the release, the feature has quickly risen to be among our most popular functionality and a guest is being added to a group every few seconds.

2. Scales from small teams to large organizations - The effort required to send a mail to one person or to a group with thousands of people is essentially the same. While many of our customers are using groups with thousands of people in them to share broad announcements to their organizations or discuss topics of interest, the sweet spot is with small teams. Over 75% of all groups in Outlook have less than 10 members and one of the key use cases we see is for the small organizational teams. There are many managers who have direct reports in our customer organizations, and they use groups in Outlook to share updates, share and work on planning documents together, use the group OneNote to document resources and take notes, and use the shared calendar to track out of office and other shared milestones, in addition to planning team meetings and events. One of the key benefits that many teams are realizing is that with all the history and content saved, new people who join the team, can get up to speed on all the prior decisions and quickly start contributing on the team.

3. Flexibility of email and existing workflows - The flexibility of email has allowed many of us to form some deeply ingrained habits in Outlook. Many verticals such as legal, finance, healthcare and more rely on business processes that are tightly integrated with email. And groups in Outlook augments them. One of the popular use cases with our customers using groups is to create email-based identities, such as support@, contact@, info@ etc. to help respond to incoming requests in a timely manner. Typically, a handful of team members monitor the group and respond to requests using the group's shared identity (send-as or send-on-behalf of), while keeping all that information - including any training documents or FAQs - together in one place. With groups it is also easy to trigger other workflows, as needed, like forwarding requests to other groups for further follow up.

4. Integrated with other Office apps - It is no secret that for most of our customers, Outlook is the hub for productivity. In fact, more than 60% of file collaboration happens in Outlook. What's important is that the content that is creates in other office apps can be shared and worked on together with others - effortlessly. Whether it's a group of students working on a class assignment or a group of knowledge workers engaged together on a sales proposal, you need to connect seamlessly with people you work with. With groups, there is a single connected entity that enables people to share content from other office apps, while keeping them fully assured that it is available to everyone on the team to work on together.

5. Works on every platform - We all have our choice when it comes to the platform we like to work on. Two-thirds of employees in the U.S. say they use at least one or more personal devices for work purposes. Additionally, many of our customers provide a choice of MacBook or Windows machines to their employees. With groups in Outlook providing the same experience on every platform, it is easy to tell a single story on how to use groups to all employees.

Groups in Outlook for iOS

Here is a peek at what we are working on next. Continue to give us feedback here on Tech Community or on Uservoice so we can make groups in Outlook work even better for you.

If you missed us, we recommend watching the below sessions to catch up on all things groups.

The Outlook guide to Microsoft Ignite 2017

Allen Filush — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 19:33:31 GMT

Hey all, hope you are getting excited for Ignite! We have a great slate of sessions scheduled this year for Outlook, spanning each of our different client and key scenarios like groups and calendaring. To make it easier to find us in Orlando, I've pulled together a list of the core sessions you should look at attending to hear about all things Outlook. And of course, you can always swing by the Outlook & Groups booths to meet the team.

Want a side meeting with the team? Please email us at ignitemeetingrequest@service.microsoft.com and share your tenant name and asks.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Key topic breakouts

75 minutes session diving deep into they key topics of the week.

What's new and what's coming in the Microsoft Outlook family of apps (BRK2251) - We've been improving the Microsoft Outlook apps for Windows, Mac, mobile, and web - adding new features and enhancing existing features. Attend this session to learn how Outlook is getting better for both the "me" space (one-to-one) and the "we" space (groups in Outlook), and see live demos of some of the exciting updates. Wednesday, September 27 at 2:15 PM
Deploying and using Outlook mobile in the Enterprise (BRK3184) - We cover the fundamentals of how to securely deploy the best mobile messaging client in your Office 365, hybrid, or on-premises environment. We also cover the latest feature roadmap and our improvements to our compliance and architecture. Wednesday, September 27 at 9:00 AM
Improvements and innovations in calendaring with Microsoft Outlook and Exchange (BRK3185) - Learn about recent and upcoming investments to help users manage their time and stay in control of the day ahead. Topics cover shared and delegate calendars, Cortana meetings scheduling, time and location suggestions, and the re-architecting of calendaring in Office 365 to improve user satisfaction. We also review calendar best practices and discuss troubleshooting tools and methodologies used to investigate and resolve calendar issues. Thursday, September 28 at 10:45 AM
Group collaboration in Microsoft Outlook (BRK2252) - Join us during this session to learn about how to empower people in your organization to better collaborate over email using groups in Outlook. We share the common use cases, and how Outlook is evolving to meet the collaborative needs of your organization and breaking down barriers when working with people outside your organization. During the session we show you the experiences with group conversations, triaging group activity, collaborating with files, tracking group calendar, working with external people and more, in the various Outlook clients (Windows, Web, Mac, Mobile) and how you can use them. We also share our latest product road map for groups in Outlook to help people work together brilliantly. Tuesday, September 26 at 9:00 AM
What can you do with Office 365 Groups in Outlook? (BRK1074) - During this session we show a 360 degree view of all the capabilities that are available in Groups for Outlook to help your users collaborate better. We demonstrate the group capabilities that exist in the different Microsoft Outlook clients (Windows, Web, Mac, Mobile). Thursday, September 28 at 9:00 AM

Quick-hitting theater & demo sessions

Have a busy schedule? Stop by these 20 min sessions to get the highlights on what is new.

Dive deeper into what’s new and what’s coming for Outlook for Windows
- THR2043 - Wednesday, September 27 at 1:05 PM
- THR2043R - Friday, September 29 at 11:05 AM
Dive deeper into what’s new and what’s coming for Outlook for Mac
- THR2044 - Wednesday, September 27 at 1:35 PM
- THR2044R - Wednesday, September 27 at 2:10 PM
Dive deeper into what’s new and what’s coming for Outlook for iOS and Android
- THR2046 - Tuesday, September 26 at 3:35 PM
- THR2046R - Wednesday, September 27 at 2:50 PM
Dive deeper into what’s new and what’s coming for Outlook on the web
- THR2045R - Tuesday, September 26 at 2:50 PM
- THR2045 - Wednesday, September 27 at 11:35 AM
Improving calendaring in Microsoft Office 365 and Outlook
- THR2153 - Tuesday, September 26 at 5:35 PM
- THR2153R - Tuesday, September 26 at 10:20 AM
What can you do with Office 365 Groups in Outlook?
- THR1014 - Monday, September 25 at 4:05 PM
Using Outlook in Office 365 for Education
- THR2041 - Wednesday, September 27 at 12:35 PM
Collaborate with people outside your company with Office 365 Groups in Outlook
- THR2042R - Tuesday, September 26 at 10:50 AM
- THR2042 - Wednesday, September 27 at 10:50 AM

AMA style Ask the Experts

Exchange and Outlook mega "ask the experts" - One email and calendaring experts session to rule them all! Bring your questions about Microsoft Exchange or Outlook, and experts from engineering and support will be on hand to answer. Topic areas represented include Exchange Server on-premises; Exchange Online; Outlook apps; top support issues; Exchange hybrid; groups in Outlook; and due to popular demand from Ignite 2016, calendaring. Tuesday, September 26 12:30 PM

Developing for Outlook

Interesting in integrating your business’ workflows into Outlook? Check out these sessions.

What’s new and what’s coming for Actionable Messages in Outlook (BRK2195) - this past year was huge for Microsoft conversations platform and we’re excited to share new capabilities as well as what’s on the roadmap. You can build mature workflows and experiences that let users seamlessly run their business in Microsoft Outlook and Teams across Windows, Web, mobile and Mac. See the latest integrations our partners have built to engage their users and how customers are leveraging them to jumpstart productivity. Come learn how to turn your workflows into actionable messages so users can do tasks like approving an expense report, filling out a survey or timesheet – all without leaving your Office applications! Tuesday, September 26 at 12:45 PM
What’s new and what’s coming for Outlook add-ins including Office 365 Centralized Deployment (BRK3213) - Join us to learn about what’s new with Outlook add-ins. At the end of the session, you’ll know how to build add-ins for Android and ensure your solution is available to the right set of users through Office 365 Centralized Deployment. We’ll also spend some time showing you how to integrate add-ins with Microsoft Graph. Finally, look out for an awesome Outlook add-in built by one of our Partners that we’ll showcase in this session. We look forward to seeing you there! Wednesday, September 27 at 2:15 PM
Build intelligent line-of-business apps leveraging Outlook/Exchange data, using Microsoft Graph (BRK3340) - earn how to quickly and easily build responsive apps and services using Outlook/Exchange REST APIs exposed through Microsoft Graph! It is now easier than ever to use industry-standard technologies to connect to Office 365, Outlook.com & hybrid Exchange 2016 from any platform. Build apps that connect your or your customer’s business processes with their mail, calendar, people, tasks, and mailbox settings. Come and find out about the new APIs we have added for conference room booking, inbox rules, categories and much more! We will also cover tips and tricks to move from Exchange Web Services (EWS) to Microsoft Graph, and best practices for scale and performance. Friday, September 29 at 10:45 AM

Hopefully this post will help you build your schedule and get the most out of your time at this year's conference!

Insiders can now try Outlook’s all new search experience

Amy Rambhia — Fri, 27 Jul 2018 04:05:05 GMT

Update Feb 28, 2018 - The new search experience is now fully rolled out to iOS and Android

We’re releasing a preview of our new, more intelligent search in Outlook for iOS and Android, announced in July, to Outlook Insiders. This update is designed to help you find the information you're looking for more quickly and efficiently.

We've made search front and center, giving it its own tab in our new simplified navigation bar. No matter where you are in the app, whatever you're looking for will be just one tap away: the venue of tonight's concert, your flight's exact departure time, or that file your boss needed in her inbox 5 minutes ago.

To get an invite, please join the Outlook Insider program. In a few days you’ll receive an email from TestFlight with a link to the pre-release app. We can’t wait for you to try out the new experience and let us know what you think! You can reach us anytime through the in-app support channels.

Here's an overview of what’s new.

Let us do the searching
The new search experience provides you with contextual information right away, without the need to first type in a search box. As soon as you tap on the Search icon at the bottom of the screen, you will have access to your top contacts, upcoming travel itineraries, package deliveries and recent attachments.

Pro tip: Tap on a contact’s picture to quickly search for messages from that person or access their contact card.A universal search
With the updated search experience, you can search for emails, files, and contacts in a single search box at the same time. This covers all your accounts, from work to personal, so you can rely on one location to find what you need fast.

Pro tip: You can jump directly to typing in the search box by double tapping on the search icon in the tab bar.

Improved filters
To help you narrow down the search results more quickly, we introduced filters in the search results. If you have multiple accounts connected to Outlook, you can focus your search a single account. You can also filter your results to only show emails with an attachment.

Pro tip: If you have a specific account selected in Mail, Search will auto filter your results to that account

New location for Contacts and Files
We’ve simplified and streamlined your experience in the app so that you can find content you care about quickly, and from one place. The Contacts and Files experience have been integrated into the Search tab, so that with a same number of clicks or less, you can get to emails from a contact, details about a contact or create a new contact.

Pro tip: If you want to browse your full list of contacts or files, simply tap the headers of those sections.

We want to hear from you!
Please give the new experience a try and let us know what you think. To share your feedback with us, go to Setting > Help & feedback > Contact support.

Don’t forget to sign up to our Insider program for access to our TestFlight build. Once you submit the form, we’ll get you enrolled and in a few days, you’ll receive an email from TestFlight with a Microsoft invitation link to the pre-release build. Let us know in the comments below if you run into any issues.

Thanks!
-The Outlook team

32-bit Outlook will soon be Large Address Aware

Allen Filush — Wed, 29 Nov 2017 19:46:57 GMT

Edit: we've published an additional help article about this update: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Large-Address-Aware-in-Outlook-2016-ea0913e4-2917-4456-b0ea-935dbd57ef02?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

We'd like to tell you about an an upcoming change in the Office 365 subscription version of Outlook 2016 for Windows that may affect you. Starting in version 1709, the 32-bit version of Outlook will be Large Address Aware (LAA). What does this mean and how will it impact you? Read on for more details.

In Windows, normal 32-bit executables have a maximum address space of 2GB. This has been the case for many years. In those years, however, hardware has moved on and has massively increased its capability. In particular, machines today have much more memory as well as increasingly higher resolution displays. In particular, the resolution of displays is the motivating factor for enabling LAA for Outlook. As displays get larger, the amount of graphics memory required to compose, render, and display applications increases dramatically. The 2GB limit described above puts pressure on Outlook’s ability to draw all the pixels to the screen—enough pressure that some re-draw glitches might result in some situations. LAA enabling allows Outlook to have a full 4GB of address space and reduce the chances of those re-draw glitches happening. Keep in mind that the application won’t necessarily use all of that memory at once, the gains are in having larger contiguous blocks of address space to use in our graphics subsystem.

The casual reader may ask “why should this matter to me?” or “sounds like a good idea, why didn’t you always do this?” The answer has to do with the history of the 2GB limit for 32-bit processes. Because 2GB was the highest address that an application would have to utilize, software developers could know that the addresses would only use 31 bits (2GB=2^31). They could then use the extra “high bit” for any interesting purpose (bookkeeping, for example). As a result, poorly (or “creatively”) written code may now malfunction in a LAA enabled process. While LAA Outlook has been extensively tested, there is the possibility that some COM add-ins in Outlook may not be compatible. Should you experience crashes in Outlook caused by an add-in, the add-in should be disabled, and a warning given when you restart the app. Please contact the add-in author and request an updated build that is LAA compatible.

All of the above only applies to 32-bit Outlook. Any customers running 64-bit Outlook are already reaping the benefits of a much MUCH larger address space.

Thanks, and let us know if you have any questions.

-The Outlook team

Introducing Follow in inbox and other improvements for managing group emails in Outlook

Ravin Sachdeva — Tue, 05 Sep 2017 17:59:52 GMT

Introducing 'Follow in inbox' and other improvements for managing group emails in Outlook

The latest set of updates for Groups in Outlook introduces new ways to manage the group emails you receive in your inbox. These updates are, in large part, based on customer feedback about the Groups subscription model. That model has now been replaced with Follow in inbox.

We hope you enjoy these improvements!

Note: Users of Groups in Outlook do not need to take any actions to adopt these improvements. They will be migrated to the new model automatically without affecting their existing subscription settings.

To follow or not to follow?

Groups in Outlook provides shared workspaces where individuals can collectively get things done. When you set up a group, you get a shared workspace inside Outlook consisting of a conversations hub, group calendar, a place to save and share files and group notes, planning tools, and more. While group members can collaborate and have discussions inside this shared workspace, they can also choose to follow the group, which means they’ll receive copies of all group conversations and events in their personal inbox.

Conversely, if members want to engage with a group in the shared workspace only and don’t want emails from the group in their inbox, they can stop following the group at any time but continue to be a member of the group.

The group’s shared workspace has all the conversations ever shared between members. Regardless of whether members follow the group, the conversations hub inside the group’s shared space will always contain all the group’s discussions and history in its original form for current and new members to read at any time.

Note: Only the member knows whether they’re following a group in their inbox. A system or IT administrator in your organization can change this member setting without prior notification.

Set up members to follow the group

When creating a group in Outlook, you can decide whether members will follow the group in their inbox. Following is recommended when members will be sharing important or urgent content and you don’t want them to miss anything. This is similar to how a distribution list works.

To set up members to follow the group:

Create the group.
Check Send all group conversations and events to members’ inboxes.

Note: this sets your group's default properties for the members who will join the group in the future.

If you don’t select this checkbox, members will only receive group events in their inboxes, and follow-up replies on their posts when they participate in a group conversation or initiate a discussion with the group. This is recommended when the content being shared in the group doesn’t require members’ immediate attention but can be reviewed at will inside the group’s shared space.

Changed your mind?

As a group owner you can always go back to the Edit Group page and change this setting. Here’s how it will affect members:

If members are not following the group and you set them to Follow group in inbox, all group members will now receive all conversations and events in their inbox.
If members are following the group and you change to Not following in inbox, the change will only affect new members who join the group in the future. Existing members will stay as is.

Members: How to follow and stop following groups

You can follow or stop following in a variety of ways, depending on the version of Outlook you’re using.

Group welcome email

All Outlook users when they join or are added to a group receive an email in their inbox welcoming them to the newly created group.

The welcome email informs each member about how this group was set up, including whether members are following it. Here’s an example from a welcome email.

To modify this setting, just click Change.

Group email footer

Each email that you receive in your inbox from a group that you are following contains a footer that clearly specifies the origin group for that email message.

Along with the name of the group is a link to stop following it in your inbox. Click this link to stop any other conversations or events from being delivered to your inbox.

Important note: when you stop following a group using the email footer you will also not receive any events from that group in your inbox.

Outlook 2016

The new group card shows whether you’re following the group. To Stop following in inbox or Follow in inbox, hover over the group name in the TO or CC line of an email and click the dropdown menu as shown below. The group card shows your existing setting and an option to change it.

Outlook on the web

The new group card shows whether you’re following the group. Hover over the group name in the TO or CC line of an email. The group card shows your existing Follow in inbox setting and an option to toggle it ON or OFF.

Outlook 2016 Mac

The new group card shows whether you’re following the group. and check or uncheck the Follow in inbox box.

The new group card shows whether you’re following the group. Tap the group name in the To or CC line of an email. The group card shows your existing Follow in inbox setting and an option to toggle it ON or OFF.

Here are examples from Outlook on iPhone and Android.

Outlook on iPhone

Outlook on Android phone

Managing group email from group shared space

When you’re inside your group’s shared space, you can use the group card or group header to manage your group email.

Outlook 2016 and Outlook on the web

The group header in the shared workspace now tells you whether you’re following the group. Use the dropdown to select Follow in inbox or Stop following in inbox.

Outlook 2016

Outlook on the web

Hovering over your current state shows exactly what you’re receiving in your inbox from this group. Here’s an example of the “not following” state.

Outlook 2016

Outlook on the web

Outlook 2016 Mac

Coming soon.

Outlook Mobile

When you open a group’s shared space, you’ll find the name of the group at the top. Tap the group name to open the group card, and then toggle Follow in inbox ON or OFF.

Outlook on iPhone

Outlook on Android phone

Don’t want any group messages in your inbox?

If you join a group or are added to a group but don’t want to receive any group messages or events in your inbox, and you’re using Outlook on the web, just add the group to your Favorites. This gives you quick and easy visibility into the group activity. Then you can completely turn off group messages in your inbox.

Important note: once you turn off all group messages from inbox, you will not receive replies in inbox to your posts, regardless of whether they were created from your inbox or the group shared space. You will only receive messages where you were @mentioned and broadcast messages (@all) in your inbox.

Outlook 2016

Coming soon.

Outlook on the web

To turn off group email from inbox:

From your group space, click .
Click Manage group email.
Select Don’t receive any group messages.

Outlook 2016 Mac

Coming soon.

Outlook Mobile

Coming soon.

How can I get someone's attention in a group?

Now that you have lots ways to manage group emails inside your inbox, and every group member is free to choose how they want to engage with a group, how do you get another member’s attention when participating in a group discussion? Just type the “@” symbol followed by their name, e.g., davis. This is known as @mentions in Outlook.

When using @mentions with someone’s name, the email will always be delivered to their inbox, regardless of how they’re managing their group email.

In Outlook on the web, type @all while composing a message to it to every group member’s inbox, regardless of how they’re managing their group email.

How can I manage a single conversation in my inbox?

If you’re following a group but aren’t interested in a particular conversation, you can ignore it. Once you ignore a conversation, all subsequent messages in that conversation will be deleted without going to your inbox.

To ignore a message or a conversation in Outlook 2016 and Outlook on the web, right-click on the message and select Ignore.

Outlook on the web

I don’t see improvements in my Outlook yet

We are rolling out these improvements in a phased manner. So, if you don’t see these improvements in your version of Outlook yet, please be patient. We’ll get these features to you soon!

Thank you for all the feedback. Let us know what you think of these latest updates.

Adding an email to a deal timeline

Welly Lee — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 18:06:36 GMT

Outlook Customer Manager enables you to better track a business opportunity by creating a deal (see What's the big deal). When navigating the business deal, you can view activity timeline related to the deal. Emails related to the deal are added to the activity timeline through one of the following:

Automatically show emails from contacts associated with the deal

Refer to What's the Big Deal to add a deal to a contact. You can also add a contact from the deal view. Note the following:

Only future email from the contact is added to the deal timeline.
It takes a few seconds for an incoming email to automatically shows up on the deal activity timeline
If the contact is later removed from the deal, all emails from the contact during the time the contact is linked to the deals will continue to show up on the timeline. For example:

January 1, Alice is added to Deal X.
January 2, Alice send an email Y
January 3, Alice is removed from Deal X

Even though Alice is no longer associated with Deal X, her email on January 2 will continue to show on the Deal X timeline

Manually add a deal on an email

In addition, to automatically shows email from the related contact, you can manually add email to a deal.

1. Launch Outlook Customer Manager on the email you like to add to a deal

2. Navigate to "All Related" then add the email to an existing deal or create a new deal

3. Navigate to the deal by clicking on the deal name and see the email added to the activity timeline (note that it may take a few seconds before the email to show up)

Using Outlook Customer Manager, you can stay on top of business opportunity right from your Outlook inbox. For more information about Outlook Customer Manager, visit http://aka.ms/ocm

Connect Outlook Customer Manager to other business application using Microsoft Flow

Miriam Ney — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 22:04:30 GMT

Get all your customer information into one place – in your Outlook inbox

Outlook Customer Manager provides you with the ability to automatically organize all your customer information together – from Outlook, Exchange and Office 365. But your may have customer information in some other places – e.g. you may be managing customers lists in MailChimp to send them marketing campaigns, using Zendesk to solve support tickets, or working in FreshBooks to send invoices. With Outlook Customer manager you now have the opportunity to bring all your customer data into one place – your Outlook inbox.

Automatically create a business contact, whenever it is created somewhere else

One issue in keeping up to date information on customers is that you have them listed in a lot of different places. For example if you add a contact to MailChimp, you also want to see them in Outlook Customer Manager, since they may send you an email later. With Flow you can create a simple workflow, which every time you add a new member to a list in MailChimp adds it to Outlook Customer Manager. You can enable similar scenarios with SharePoint, FreshDesk and FreshBooks templates we've created in Flow.

Setting up a flow in Microsoft Flow for MailChimp and Outlook Customer Manager

Get your data from your website into on place

Outlook Customer Manager lets you manage business contacts, but also a lot more information about them – so let's look at a more complex scenario. Say you own an interior design studio. And a lot of your customers find you through online search and reach your webpage. You want to make it easy for them to contact you and ideally provide their details, so you can have an informed response to their inquires.

To enable this, you have a form on your website where visitors can enter information, which will be saved some where. Ideally that exact same information entered into the web form will be automatically added to your customer relationship management system. With Microsoft Flow, this can be done in a few quick steps in Outlook Customer Manager. Let's see how this works.

Set up a Trigger - Whenever a form is submitted on my website

One of the services available in Microsoft Flow is Typeform. Typeform allows you to create sophisticated web forms, which you can publish on your website. Using Typeform you can create a form, which includes fields, such as name, email address, company, request, budget and timeframe. You can publish that form on your website. We will set the submission of this web form as a trigger in Flow. So anytime someone submits an entry, Flow will be notified about it.

Create an Action - Create a new contact, company, deal and activity in Outlook Customer Manager

Once Flow knows that your customer has submitted information, it can act on it and update your Outlook Customer Manager. From the name and email address, it can create a new business contact. Using the company name, it can create and link the company. It can create deal, link it to the business contact and fill in the request as name, the budget as amount and the timeframe as close date. Last but not least it can create a new activity, which shows up on the timeline of the contact it created.

Setting up a flow in Microsoft Flow for Typeform and Outlook Customer Manager

It is easy to get all your customer information in one place – in your Outlook inbox. Start with one of the Flow templates we've created for Outlook Customer Manager or simply create one of your own.

Also see our support page on Microsoft Flow integration.

We'd like to hear from you

Srihari Srinivasa — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 22:34:26 GMT

Outlook Customer Manager has been generally available for about two months now, and we would love to hear more about how you are using it and how you like it. The purpose of this survey is to learn how we can enhance your experience of Outlook Customer Manager. We actively use feedback to make Outlook Customer Manager more meaningful and relevant for your customer relationships.

Survey

We have created this survey for your feedback: https://aka.ms/ocmsurvey It takes less than 5 minutes to complete. Towards the end of the survey, you have the option to allow us to contact you. If you choose that option, we may reach out to you to learn more about you, your business and your challenges. This would give you the time to provide us more feedback. Please let us know what you think!

Make Outlook Customer Manager your own

Miriam Ney — Thu, 22 Jun 2017 15:42:07 GMT

You know your business best. So we have enabled you to customize your contacts, companies and deals. For example if you are an interior designer you might want to store the favorite color for your customer or your steps in a deal stage include a consultation phase. You can add fields to them, you can change the stages in deals and you can update your amount currency.

(Read more about it here.)

Up until recently you were only able to create text, number and date fields. A few days ago, we added the ability to create a few other field types:

Link: to store websites or project sites easily
yes/no: to store true/false values for things such as "requires training"
Currency: to store numbers formatted according to a currency, such as "discount"
Choice fields: to store options, which can only be selected for this field, such as "status"

Now, when you go to the Add column link, it opens the add column dialog and gives you more options to choose from.

Add column dialog with field types

Some of you asked for a choice field. Using it, you are able to create dropdown lists.

For example as an interior designer you might want to clarify which part of the house you are designing as part of your deal. Using the choice field you can limit it to living room, dining room and bath room. This makes sure you and your colleagues use the same set of options.

Add column dialog with setting options on a choice field

Also it will help you, when trying to sort and filter on these fields later on.

These new fields, similar to before, will show up as part of the details section of a contact, company or deal:

Deal details with choice custom field

Let us know, what you think about these new column types and what other types of customization you would like to see. There are a few requests in our feedback forum, so vote them up:

Best practices for importing contact with Outlook Customer Manager

Welly Lee — Mon, 08 May 2017 20:32:17 GMT

A couple of things you should know before importing data into Outlook Customer Manager (OCM):

1.	OCM import allows you to map only to frequently used fields
	During the import process, you can map columns in csv import file to OCM fields. To simplify the experience, OCM only exposes frequently used contact fields such as name, address, primary phone numbers, birthday, and notes. OCM allows you to create additional custom fields but limited to 25 fields. When the limit is reached, you can't add more fields, even after deleting existing field.
2.	OCM support small import file size
	OCM has a limit of 30kb when importing csv from the module add-in view. When you have many contacts with many fields, the number of contacts, that can be imported through OCM can be quite small.

To overcome the limitations above, you may combine importing contact through OCM with the contact import functionality in Outlook.

OCM manages contacts directly from outlook contact, so any contact imported through Outlook will also be available in OCM. Similarly, importing or updating contacts in OCM will update Outlook contacts.

Importing contacts directly to Outlook Contact enables you to access more fields as there are more native fields available in Outlook. Outlook Contact import functionality also supports bigger import file size. After you finish importing contact through Outlook, you can then use the OCM to update the contacts with custom fields you created in OCM as well as to bulk share the contact with your colleagues.

Consider the following example, let's say we would like to import the following contact data into OCM

Some of the fields such as anniversary, spouse name, children are not fields natively available from OCM. You could create custom fields in OCM, but doing so will reduce the number of fields you could add in the future as you can only create up to 25 custom fields.

However, those fields are available natively in Outlook contact and you can import the contacts using Outlook import contact

Importing Contacts using Outlook

1. From Outlook File menu, go to File > Open & Export > Import/Export

2. Follow import wizard steps


Select "Import from another program or file"	Select "Comma Separated Values" format	Browse for your import contact file*	Select "Contacts" as destination folder - you should select the root contacts folder (instead of its subfolder)	Review/update mapping using "Map Custom Fields" and click Finish

*Note: Attached is the SampleOutlookContactImport.csv file I used for this article. The sample file includes most of the contact fields natively supported in Outlook for your reference.

The imported contacts will appear in Outlook, which can be viewed by clicking on the People icon at the bottom left corner


Some of the fields appear on the main outlook contact card	Select "List" view to open the contact details	Look for contact details by changing the "select from" filter. For example, the anniversary, children, and spouse name appeared under "Personal fields"

When navigating to OCM module view, the imported contacts appear in OCM's contact view. Clicking the contact shows the same information as the Outlook contact card:

You can update the contact using OCM import for additional capability, such as:

Adding contact custom fields
Linking the contact to a company
Sharing the contact with your colleagues

Adding contact custom fields

Any OCM users can easily add a field to the contact. Click "Add column" from the contact list then specify name and column type (OCM currently support text, number, and date column type -- with support for more types coming soon).

Linking the contact to a company

OCM enables you to link contact to a company. You can add a new company from OCM contact detail view and the company will appear under company tab. You can link multiple contacts to a company and all communication history from any of those contacts appeared in the company's activity timeline. For more information about OCM company, see Managing Companies with Outlook Customer Manager

Sharing the contacts with your colleagues

During the OCM import, you can specify if the imported contacts to be automatically shared. Selecting the option will make the contact information to be available to all OCM users in your organization. Anyone can update the contact, so everyone can view the most up-to-date information about the contact. For more information about OCM sharing, see Sharing - how to keep your colleagues in the loop

Importing contacts using OCM

After you imported the standard fields through Outlook.

You can prepare an OCM import file to update the existing contacts with the custom fields and company -- you do not need to include all fields that already exists in Outlook:

OCM import files must include contact first name, last name, and email address for OCM to know which contact to update.

To start the import, go to OCM module add-in view and select "Import > Contacts"

Browse the OCM import file.

Map the import file column to the OCM contact fields

In the next screen, select replace contact information option. This option will update the contact information with the data specified in the import file. Any fields not mapped to the import file column will not be updated and existing value for that field will be kept. In this step, you can also specify if the imported contacts are to be shared.

After OCM import contact completed, you can view the resulting changes:

All contacts imported from OCM automatically set the contact as "business contact", you can change the filter to view only business contacts to separate them with your personal contacts.
Company column is populated with company information and a link to the company view also appeared on the contact view
All contacts are shared with all OCM users in your organization
Custom fields are populated

Summary

In this article, I showed how you can import contacts using Outlook before updating the contacts using OCM. Importing contact using Outlook allows you to use all native outlook contact fields which are not available when importing directly using OCM. It also enables you to import bigger import files than the 30kb import limit in OCM.

After contacts have been imported into Outlook, you can use OCM import to update custom fields, company link, and share the contacts with your colleagues.

Using both native Outlook and OCM contact import enables you to fully leverage the native outlook contact management capability while using OCM import to bulk-update the contacts with specific OCM functionalities.

Scheduling Customer Meeting with Cortana

Welly Lee — Wed, 06 Sep 2017 15:46:09 GMT

Scheduling a meeting with people inside your company is easy, when you can view their free/busy information, but trying to meet with an external customer takes more coordination and communication.

Outlook Customer Manager (OCM) now saves you time by enabling Cortana to assist you in scheduling your customer meetings.

When replying to an email requesting a meeting by your customer, open Customer Manager and select "Ask Cortana to schedule”. OCM will initiate a reply on your behalf and include Cortana in the cc, along with the following text "I'm including my assistant Cortana, she'll find 30 minutes for us to meet next week." Of course, you can freely modify the text for your specific needs.

Once you have delegated the meeting scheduling to Cortana, she will reach out to your customer. Using your calendar, preset preferences, and any additional contextual information from the email, Cortana determines your best available times and offers them to your customer via email to confirm a schedule that works for them.

Your customer can reply directly in the email with preferred meeting time and Cortana will send a meeting invite with the agreed time slot.

That's it. No more back-and-forth emails to find a meeting time.

Cortana meeting assistant on OCM is currently available as preview feature to the first 1000 First Release English users who sign up. A user with O365 global administration role must first sign up before the option becomes available to all other OCM users in the organization.

Let us know what you think about the feature and submit request to Outlook user voice to make this feature generally available.

Pinning, Sorting and our roll out - January Update

Miriam Ney — Fri, 27 Jan 2017 16:06:26 GMT

A couple of hours ago, we updated Outlook Customer Manager - here is what we changed:

Pin your app, so it always stays open

One of the issues we found with Outlook Customer Manager, is remembering to open it. With today's update you don’t need to anymore.

After opening the app - pin it and it will stay open while you go through your emails, go to the calendar or come back from our module.

This features comes with our latest update and the latest Outlook Build. Make sure you are uptodate and you will start seeing this little pin show up in the top right corner. Further you will now see Outlook Customer Manager light up in your appointments and when you write emails.

Sort and filter on your custom fields

We allow you to filter on regular fields already, but when you added a custom field, you couldn’t filter or sort by it. This functionality has now been added.To get there - just go to the column you want to filter and hit the filter icon. It will give you a couple options.

Update on roll out to First Release

We have been expanding our roll out in the last couple weeks and anticipate to finish with the rollout for Business Premium in First Release by end of next week (February 2nd).

But if you want to test before we finish - you can create a new Business Premium user in first release and see Outlook Customer Manager show up in the next 12 hours.

In the Adminstrator center you can will then see the Outlook Customer Manager license.

Thank you for testing and please give us any feedback, either in the comments or on Uservoice

Sharing - how to keep your colleagues in the loop

Miriam Ney — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 17:03:32 GMT

What would be relationship management, without knowing what your colleagues know about the customer? Using Outlook Customer Manager, you are able to create contacts, companies and deals that describe your relationships with your customer. Then you can share them with colleagues, who are also using Outlook Customer Manager, so that all of you have the same information.

How do you share?

Currently you can share contact, companies and deals. To share any of them, go to their details page and hit the switch at the bottom saying share.

Holly works in the landscaping business. She and her colleague David communicate often with customers. She adds them to Outlook Customer Manager, directly when she creates them using the share button. That way David knows more about them, when he talks to them.

On the grid you will see which ones are shared and which ones are private. In the details section you can see, who shared it.

Holly goes to see all her customers in Outlook Customer Manager. In the list, she can see directly who is shared with the group and who is a private contact.

You can find more information on how to share on our support pages

What happens when you share?

When you share, we will go in and distribute the information to everyone who is in the Outlook Customer Manager group and uses Outlook Customer Manager.

When anyone makes updates to these contacts, companies and deals, others in the group will see them. You and your colleagues will see updates in the timeline and the person doing the change. Files attached to the contact, company or deal, will show up in the Outlook Customer Manager group. So you can collaborate on them directly using OneDrive.

When looking at a contact, Holly notices, that David has updated the phone number. She can now be sure, she reaches out correctly to the customer.

Currently you will not be able share anything else, but we are working on enabling other options. Let us know on uservoice, what you want us to add.

When should you share?

If and when you should share, depends on your business. If you have anyone in your company, who benefits from it, you should share. Say you have an admin, that helps schedule times, share the data. If you and a co worker are working with the same client, you should share.

Let us know, what you think about the sharing feature in the comments.

What's the big Deal

Welly Lee — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 17:40:12 GMT

Outlook Customer Manager (OCM) enables you to manage deals. A deal is a business opportunity or potential transaction with your customers. You can use OCM to manage, track progress and view all information related to the deal.

You can create a deal directly from OCM business contact view. When you receive an email from your business contact, you open Customer Manager and click + on the deal section. Type the deal name then click on the name to navigate to the deal view.

Similar to the business contact view, the deal view shows list of related contacts, tasks, timelines, notes, and files. Since the deal is created from Alex's view, he is automatically linked as a contact to the new deal. Furthermore, any future communication between you and Alex is automatically shown on the deal's timeline view.

A new deal is created with no amount and due one week after the create date. You can manage the deal and update value by clicking View Details on the deal header.

You can find the list of all deals you created by going to the Outlook's add-ins view.

You can search for deal and filter based on the deal column value. You can also customize the list by updating the deal stages and adding column(s).

To update deal stages, click on the edit icon next to the Stage header:

The customize stages view allows you to create, remove and re-order stages. For example, I add a new stage Under Review under Open category.

All the active stages should be created under Open category. A deal can be moved to inactive stages such as when a deal is won or lost. You can create a new stages to define a new inactive stage (For example Project on-hold) under Other.

You can add new column to the deal list:

For example, I add a new column to track win probability for the deal.

Note:

OCM currently supports 3 data type: text, number and date, with support for more data types are planned in the future releases.
A maximum of 25 columns can be added to the deal list

OCM helps you to track deal due date by showing upcoming deals and deal past due on the Focused section the deal page.

The past due and upcoming deals are also shown on the OCM iOS mobile app to enable you to stay on top of your deals while you are on the go.

In addition to create a deal from a contact, you can also create a deal from a company as well as create a stand-alone deal from the add-in view.

In this article, we talked about managing deals using Outlook Customer Manager. It helps you to manage deal, track progress and due date. In the next article, Miriam will talk about how to share the information with your team.

Managing companies with Outlook Customer Manager

Welly Lee — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 02:38:26 GMT

Updated April 20

Outlook Customer Manager (OCM) supports creation of companies and linking business contacts to a company. You can then manage relationship with the company, instead of managing separate relationship with each individuals in the company.

You can create a new company when you are editing a business contact. To edit a business contact, open the OCM pane and click on View Details.

On the Company field, type the name of the company. OCM checks if the company already exists and provide a suggestions for you. Otherwise, you can select create a new company -- to create a new one.

Recently, we added a new feature to make it even easier for you to create a company from BING. Clicking the option will search the company name from BING and when selecting the result, the new company is created with publicly availabile information such as address, website and company description. Refer to Search company from BING for more information about this feature.

Save/cancel button appears at the bottom of the contact details pane. The button allows to save the link between the contact (Alex Darrow) and the newly created company (Contoso)

Note

The (Contoso) company was created as soon as you click create -- if you click cancel on the contact details view, it will not delete Contoso company record but only remove the link between Alex Darrow and Contoso

When you return to Alex's view, you will see that Alex is now linked to Contoso. Clicking on Contoso navigates you to the Contoso company view. Click + next to the contact to add more business contact. Type a name to search for an existing business contact or to create a new one.

The timeline shows communication history from all contacts linked with the company. For example, after adding Dorena to Contoso, the Contoso timeline now includes communication history with both Alex and Dorena.

You can find the list of all companies you created by going to the Outlook's add-ins view.

Click on Companies tab to view your business contacts. Similar to Contacts view as discussed in the previous article, you can find companies which you have active engagements are automatically shown under Focused section. You can also search and filter to find the company.

In this article, we discussed how to get create new company and link the company to business contacts. You can find all the companies from the OCM add-in view, add custom fields, edit the company information and export the company list.

In the next article, I will discuss on creating and managing deals in Outlook Customer Manager.

Getting Started with Outlook Customer Manager

Welly Lee — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 02:26:52 GMT

Updated - April 19

This week Microsoft released Outlook Customer Manager (OCM), a new Office 365 service that helps small businesses track and grow their customer relationships right within Outlook. The feature is available at no extra cost to Office 365 Business Premium subscribers.

When you open Outlook, look for "Customer Manager" icon on the home tab of your Outlook (windows) app :

You can also access OCM when opening an email on Outlook Web Access (OWA) :

... and on Outlook Mobile iOS app:

Setting Up OCM

When opening OCM for the first time, you will be prompted to login to O365 Business Premium account

Tip:

Depending on how much data you have in Outlook, the setup may run for a few minutes. If you close the window or navigate away (including clicking another email) before it finished, you will need to start the setup all over again the next time you open OCM.

Viewing Relationship History

When opening Customer Manager on an email, OCM automatically shows communication history between you and the email sender. This include previous emails (including email sent and received by you) as well as meetings. Any new email and meeting between you and the business contact will now be automatically shown on the timeline.

Note: in the earlier version of the application, you are required to create the email sender as the business contact to view the timeline. We recently made a change to simplify the experience, so you can view timeline regardless whether or not the email sender is a business contact. You can explicitly click "add as a contact" or else the business contact will be automatically created when you add task/deal to the contact.

Managing Business Contact

You can find the list of all business contacts you created by going to the Outlook's add-ins view. Look for the Add-ins icon on the lower left corner of Outlook -- note that you may need to first click "…" to navigate to the Add-ins window.

Click on "Contacts" tab to view your business contacts. At the top of the page, you may find several contacts shown under "Focused" section. OCM automatically shows business contact whom you have active engagements such as contacts with an active deals, active task, upcoming meetings, and any contacts you recently engaged to help you access the contacts easily.

You can add more business contact by creating new or convert an existing outlook contact to a business contact. You can locate existing outlook contacts by switching the filter dropdown option from "Business Contact" to "All Contacts"

Search for the contact name or scroll the list until you find the contact. Selecting the contact opens a contact summary windows. Click "View Details" near the top of the window to open the business contact's detailed information.

Look for "Business Contact" toggle near the bottom of the business contact detail view. Click to switch and click "Save" to finish the update.

Return to the Business Contact list to view the new contact.

In this article, we discussed how to get started with the new Outlook Customer Manager, including adding and managing business contact. In the next article, I will discuss on creating and managing companies in OCM.