Introducing groups in Outlook for Mac, iOS and Android

Microsoft

We are very excited to announce that we are rolling out groups experiences in Outlook for Mac, iOS and Android. When available on your device, you can -

  • View your group list.
  • Read and reply to group conversations.
  • Add group events to your personal calendar.
  • View unread messages sent to the group.
  • View group details within the group card (Outlook for iOS and Android only).

We are working on quick iterations and additional functionality in the upcoming months, so stay tuned. More information here - https://blogs.office.com/2017/04/18/introducing-groups-in-outlook-for-mac-ios-and-android/.

 

Thanks,

Krish

 

49 Replies
Hi Krish, question - what is the perceived path forward for users that don't use Outlook for email on their mobile device currently (e.g. uses built-in iphone app, or gmail app on android)?

I'm assuming that the actual Outlook Groups app will eventually go away based on the wording.

Would they just disable mail sync? Would that impact the usability of Groups in Outlook app?
Hi Brent,
Outlook on iOS and Android has been continuously adding a ton of functionality for users and enterprise features that administrators need. So, I would recommend you to take a close look at it.
I don't fully understand your comment on mail sync getting disabled. Can you clarify?
Hi Krish,
until outlook for iOS is able to download emails in background I cannot switch.
It is one of the top requested features since 2015 but still no news...

Thank you,
Roberto
I personally use it, but most of our users use the built-in email clients as it is what they are familiar with/comfortable with. So we have never forced them to move into the tool. I'm afraid Microsoft is making that decision for us.

I'm a big fan of the stand alone Groups app, and personally didn't see a need to shove it into Outlook. I view it as a lightweight competitor to Teams, and thus worthy of its own interface. If you wanted to communicate in Outlook, you could just subscribe and do it via email.

Hi there. I'm from the Outlook for iOS team.

 

You can enable background refresh for Outlook on iOS by following the steps here

 

It's worth noting a few things to keep in mind regarding background email and calendar syncing on iOS (and Android too). Both Apple and Google control the operating systems that the Outlook apps run on and we must follow the rules as 3rd party apps. 

 

There are some situations where the background download will be impacted: 

  • If you “force-quit” an app, any background refresh for the app is disabled.
  • Background refresh is also disabled if you restart your device.
  • Downloading an update for an app from the app store might also disable background refresh temporarily. 
  • If you haven't opened the app recently, iOS might disable background refresh.

 

I hope this helps. Please do enable background refresh in Settings if you haven't already. And if you're seeing poor sync performance, please let us know by opening an in-app support ticket by going to Settings > Help & Feedback > Contact support. Thanks! 

Hi Michael,
Background refresh was already enabled on my iPhone.
I receive the notification that new emails arrived, but when I open the outlook app it has yet to download the emails. It doesn't download them in background...
Until this is fixed/possible me and many of my customers won't switch from the stock iOS email app.

Thank you for your reply, very appreciated!

Roberto

Thanks Roberto. In that case, please submit a support ticket through the app. We are aware of others reporting similar issues and we're working on resolving them. Submitting tickets via the in-app support experience helps us collect the required app logging to debug issues. Thanks again.
Thank you Michael.
I just did it.

Roberto

It would really be helpful to be transparent about which versions of the client apps support Groups, especially given the "you may or may not see this immediately" guidance.

 

"Use latest version" seems less than precise since this is ever changing. Do you mean latest if you're on "Office Insider" or for the regular release?  The last Mac Outlook release I see was issued on April 9. Is that the right version??

Hi Kevin,

 

Yes, Mac Outlook build which got issued on April 9th for the regular release is the right version with Groups feature bits. We have currently lifted Groups feature gate for a subset of users and we’ll be expanding the audience as each day passes.

 

-Maria

 

 

That's helpful. Even more helpful if the post would state that without ambiguity.


@Krish Gali wrote:

We are very excited to announce that we are rolling out groups experiences in Outlook for Mac, iOS and Android. When available on your device, you can -

  • View your group list.
  • Read and reply to group conversations.
  • Add group events to your personal calendar.
  • View unread messages sent to the group.
  • View group details within the group card (Outlook for iOS and Android only).

We are working on quick iterations and additional functionality in the upcoming months, so stay tuned. More information here - https://blogs.office.com/2017/04/18/introducing-groups-in-outlook-for-mac-ios-and-android/.

 

Thanks,

Krish

 


Hi, we're finally able to see the Groups icon on iOS but I'm not totally happy with the implementation. Correct me if I'm wrong or your opinion differs:

 

  • iOS Unread Badge Count does not include unread Group Messages/Conversations
    • doesn't matter if the badge count is set to focused or all
  • therefore no push notifications either, right?
  • cannot mark group conversation unread manually

Also, I'd like the Groups Icon either moved out of the hamburger menu, at atleast show the icon at the very top, and immediately visible when I'm in my inbox. Almost no users I know open the hamburger menu regularly when there is no indication (=unread badge counter) that they should look also somewhere else.

Hi Ivan, 

Thank you for your feedback. I'm from Groups team and I'd love to better understand your scenario with iOS badge count. Currently, iOS badge count only shows the number of unread messages in Inbox. Were you expecting the badge count to show the aggregated number of unread messages from all folders including Inbox, Groups and other folders? Or are you mainly looking for push notifications/alerts specific to group conversations?

 

Regarding marking group conversations unread/read manually and providing easier access to groups folder in the app, we've been getting multiple feedback on these and we're working through solving these issues. 

 

We're committed to make Groups better on all Outlook apps so please keep the feedback coming! 

 

-Maria 


@Maria Kang wrote:

Hi Ivan, 

Thank you for your feedback. I'm from Groups team and I'd love to better understand your scenario with iOS badge count. Currently, iOS badge count only shows the number of unread messages in Inbox. Were you expecting the badge count to show the aggregated number of unread messages from all folders including Inbox, Groups and other folders? Or are you mainly looking for push notifications/alerts specific to group conversations?

 

Regarding marking group conversations unread/read manually and providing easier access to groups folder in the app, we've been getting multiple feedback on these and we're working through solving these issues. 

 

We're committed to make Groups better on all Outlook apps so please keep the feedback coming! 

 

-Maria 


Hi,

 

yes, I've been asked by multiple of my users how they can keep with the unread group conversations, like they do with emails. 

The other iOS Groups app has push notifications and shows badges, though only for notifications and not as an unread count. So as soon as they open the Groups app, the badge counter is reset.

That's why I was hoping for a way to prominently show the count of unread group conversations within the iOS Outlook app. Right now it is hidden behind the hamburger menu (drawer) and users with hundreds of folders beneath their inbox would probably never even see the Groups icon because they would have to scroll way down - which most don't. 

The result is the same as before - group conversation remain unnoticed without the user having to subscribe to all groups to receive a copy in their inbox.

 

My suggestions would be to place the groups icon somewhere next to the "hamburger menu", "search icon" and "compose icon", possibly reshuffle them. An alternative from an UI perspective might be to simply show an additional unread badge directly ontop of the hamburger menu, then people would know that there are unread messages that are not directly in their "inbox", but possible in subfolders or within groups.

Hi Ivan, 

This is great! We're currently looking at options to surface groups activity more prominently in the app, especially for unsubscribed groups. So I'll defintinitely make sure to pass your feedback to our feature team. Thank you!

 

-Maria

 

Hello! sorry to post here but this forum won't let me post anywhere else saying I have not enough rights to start a new post! I have a problem. I'm a o365 administrator with full control rights over everything. I have deleted a group I had created after testing something with it. I was the only member so I was also it's owner. When I deleted it, it went away from everywhere, but it remained in my outlook desktop application and it won't go away. Since then my outlook refreshes the groups list constantly and it's really bothersome. Can you help? Thanks

Hi Pablo,

From your message, it appears that you are seeing this issue in Outlook Desktop. Deleted groups should get synced down and be removed from the groups list. Can you submit a support request through "File>Support>Contact support." so that we can get the details of your client version and troubleshoot this better.

Thanks,

Krish

Anyone having issues seeing the Groups option in Outlook for Mac 15.35? We are migrating from on prem to Exchange Online and trying to test that feature with migrated accounts and the Groups just don't appear.

The only way to see Groups in the Mac Outlook client is if the Mac Outlook is using an O365 License. If you're on a volume license you won't see groups.

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No, I don't know why MS is doing it this way.