OWA for iPhone and OWA for iPad are now available!
Published Jul 16 2013 10:22 AM 65.3K Views

Today, we are excited to announce the availability of OWA for iPhone and OWA for iPad, which provides even more value to organizations on any Office 365 subscription that includes Exchange Online. OWA for iPhone and OWA for iPad are mobile apps that offer the same email, calendar, and contact functionality you get in Outlook Web App on the browser, but with additional capabilities that are only possible through native integration of the app with mobile devices.

Our goal is to help our customers remain productive anytime, anywhere. This includes providing a great email experience on smartphones and tablets. We already offer Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), which is the de facto industry standard for accessing Exchange email on mobile devices. Windows Phone 8 comes with Outlook Mobile, and the Outlook Web App experience in the Windows Phone 8 browser is top-notch. In order to better support many of our customers who use their iPhones and iPads for work, we are introducing OWA for iPhone and OWA for iPad, which bring a native Outlook Web App experience to iOS devices!

OWA for iPhone and OWA for iPad can be installed directly from the Apple App Store. A subscription to Office 365 that includes Exchange Online is required to use the app.1 If you aren’t already an Office 365 subscriber, you can visit www.office.com to learn more and sign up.

Note: OWA for iPhone/iPad is for Office 365 customers who have the newest update of Exchange Online. Support for Exchange Server 2013 is planned for the future.

For more details, head over to OWA for iPhone and OWA for iPad on the Office 365 technology blog.

Note: for additional information about OWA for iPad as well as some related troubleshooting information, you can go to the OWA for iPhone and OWA for iPad Office 365 Wiki page.

The Exchange Team

46 Comments
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Is support for on premise hosted Exchange planned?

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@Matthew: As the post states, support for Exchange on-premises is planned for the future.

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I have no Office365 subscription but I still tried it and a screen appeared where I can enter a Server. Unfortunately it told me that the server is not compatible with this OWA App. Is this for the upcoming on premise support which does not fully work yet or do I just need a specific version / SP / hotfix release to support this App on my on premise server?

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When is support for on-prem planned to be released, and what versions will be supported?

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@Alexis @Chris: As the post states, support for Exchange on-premises is planned for the future. More details about Exchange Server version requirements when we announce on-premises support.

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It's really sad that Microsoft, once again, releases something which gives only Office365 customer and advantage. It's like leaving all the long-standing customers with on premise servers outside in the rain.

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COME ON Microsoft, you got millions worldwide customer using Exchange On-Premises.

STOP BSing us with this Office 365..............

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@Alexis Caceda and @John: Please review our "Servicing Exchange 2013" blog post (blogs.technet.com/.../servicing-exchange-2013.aspx) to help you understand why that is.

It is simply the way we can ship software to our datacenter in an accelerated fashion, vs. shipping updates for enterprise customers. Because we control both the O365 topology and deployment pace, we are able to light up features there at a much faster pace. As described in the blog post mentioned, we have every intention to include features that light up in O365 in future updates for on-premise customers.

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Will this work with Gmail?

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Exchange On-Premises customers have been loyal for decades, they need MORE RESPECT.

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"Second, you need an iPhone 4 or higher and an iPad 2 or higher. The device must also be running iOS 6 or higher."

I can't install the app on my iPhone 4...

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Any Plans for an Android support?

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Tried installing this on my iPod touch 4th gen, running iOS6 and can't, it's says i need a digital compass? why??

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When is it coming for Android and on-prem pls?

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Kevin M,

As per the official App release page,

itunes.apple.com/.../id659503543, you need at least iPhone 4S. The part that you've quoted from Office 365 Technical blog post seems to be incorrect.

blogs.office.com/.../owa-for-iphone-and-owa-for-ipad.aspx

Pasting here the full requirements from official App release page:

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad (3rd generation), iPad Wi-Fi + 4G, iPad (4th generation), iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (4th generation), iPad mini and iPad mini Wi-Fi + Cellular. Requires iOS 6.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone

5.

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Sunith Mandalia,

Official requirements require an  iPhone 4S or higher or iPad 2 and higher, not sure where you got the idea that it can be installed on an iPod :)

OWA for iPhone

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad (3rd generation), iPad Wi-Fi + 4G, iPad (4th generation), iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (4th generation), iPad mini and iPad mini Wi-Fi + Cellular. Requires iOS 6.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone

5.

OWA for iPad

Requirements: Compatible with iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iPad (3rd generation), iPad Wi-Fi + 4G, iPad (4th generation), iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (4th generation), iPad mini and iPad mini Wi-Fi + Cellular. Requires iOS 6.0 or later.

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Congrats on the release.  Yet another tool for our users.  SkyDrive Pro, Office Mobile, OneNote, Lync 2013 and now OWA for iOS.  You guys are on a roll.  I heart O365.

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@Carrie: No, OWA for iPhone & OWA for iPad are for Office 365 - they won't work with Gmail.

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After the news of "NSA backdoor access to the Public Cloud servers", no sane person will put corporate Emails in the Public cloud servers such as Office 365.

Microsoft you should focus on your flagship Exchange On-Premises.

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Does it work with federated domains ? Our AD is federated with office 365 and my mailbox is already in the cloud. I can logon using Office365 iPhone App but owa client doesnt work on my iPhone and iPad.

Any idea ?

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Hi,

I'd love to see that You deploy some "native" app for Android too, to access our on-premises EX2010.. anything?

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I'm not sure why everyone is up in arms about the initial release of the app lacking On-Premises capability. If Microsoft releases the app with On-Prem capability and it blew up your Prod environment.. It wouldn't end well lol.. lets give the guys a chance to fix the bugs first..

In the interim, I've tested it out using my test office 365 account and it looks good. You can find the screenshots on my blog.

thelifestrategist.wordpress.com

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Is there functionality for two different Exchange email addresses like in a desktop Outlook?

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OWA for iPhone and OWA for iPad can be installed directly from the Apple App Store,every iphone has developed by ios use it....

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I can't install it on an iPhone 4 with the latest version of iOS 6.1.3.. says not compatible with this verison..

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@David, that is because the requirements for iPhones is a 4S or higher.

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We are ready to follow your accelerated releases and guidance (as a service provide partner), but we do not get access to them! Please explain the reason why you cannot release the server side components required to support such an important client and let your partners/customers decide when they are ready to deploy them? Please don't let the gap between internal and external releases grow further and realize that service providers (including internal IT units of large Enterprises) are essential partners for MS's long term sucess on a global scale! It makes not much sense to upset them and their customers with such restricted releases and misleading communication.

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Andrew N,

Yes, it does work for Federated domains. I just tested against an identical setup which matches with the setup details that you have provided, the App is working to connect to the mailbox hosted in Office 365/Exchange Online (Cloud). For my setup, I don't have the autodiscover records published for my federated domain/tenant, so if I try to configure my account in the App, which uses autodiscover to pull up my mailbox info, it fails to connect with the usual error. So I then use the Advanced Settings option (provided in the same error message) to setup my account in the App. I provided full SMTP e-mail address (user@contoso.com) in the User name field, outlook.office365.com as Server name, left the Domain field empty & checked the SSL box - it connected right away! I can then use the App as expected connected to that mailbox.

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Jay S,

No, you can only connect to one mailbox - the primary user's mailbox. You can't access multiple or another user's mailbox using the App. Though this feature is available if you use OWA in a browser, i.e. you can open another user's mailbox - it opens in a new browser window (of course you need to have access permissions on that other user's mailbox).

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It also doesn't work for Office 365 University Plan A2 accounts even though they have Exchange Online. So much for it being free. I also don't see it working for Office 365 Home Premium account since they don't include an Office 365 Exchange Online email account even if using a hosted Exchange address.

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I can't get the app to setup on my iPad2 after loading it.  I know my ID and password are correct and it just says to check them, like one is wrong.  Logged on directly to my Office365 account to check them again - no issues.  Please help me understand this OWA glitch and how to fix it..  Thanks.  

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First of all Microsoft will push all to the cloud using this kind of tactics.

Also "middle" man will be eliminated, once we are all in the cloud.

There is hope however let's say next Q1 results are south from

Q4 ... someone may clue in that it is customers that Microsoft

needs not the opposite. And maybe they will light up some features

under some ...

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I suggest that you pass on this app for now

Read InfoWorld review (maybe a bit harsh) judge yourself.

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John Jordan,

I am hoping you are on the latest version of Office 365, here is an article to check that to be sure about it: office.microsoft.com/.../am-i-using-office-365-after-the-service-upgrade-HA103982331.aspx. OWA App uses autodiscover to set up your account on the device. Have you published required DNS records for autodiscover to work properly for your users? If you have done that then please run the "Outlook Autodiscover" test under "Office 365" tab at exrca.com. Use the same user's credentials that you're using on the iOS device in OWA App. If the test succeeds then there may be some other issue, and we can help you with that. You can open a Support Incident thru MOP or post your issue in Office 365 'Mobile Access' Forum (community.office365.com/.../173.aspx). A support engineer will then work with you to help resolve your issue. If the "Outlook Autodiscover" test fails, then you will need to take the steps outlined in these articles to setup autodiscover properly: help.outlook.com/.../cc950655.aspx & support.microsoft.com/.../2404385 (see "Method 2") HTH.

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Will the OWA app allow shared contact lists / calendars to work? Public folders?

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Installed yesterday. I have a regular latest-generation Office365 account (with enterprise domain credentials, not microsoft credentials), which works flawlessly if logging in from the browser.

The OWA app instead refuses to login with a strange error: "The server is incompatible with the app version". Tried uninstalling and reinstalling, resetting, but nothing worked.

Is there anything I can do?

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If I could only clip a screen shot of OWA on my Lumia 928 for post upgrade O365...my OWA looks like OWA from BPOS era. Awful. I'm so glad that Apple users have an awesome app to use though. That's super!

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@Amanda: Sure you can, please see here: www.windowsphone.com/.../take-a-screenshot

By the way - is there a reason why you would prefer to use OWA in the browser vs. the built-in Mail capability of the phone?

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Robert Donovan,

Shared Calendars (of other users): Yes (same for OWA in a browser)

Shared Contacts (of other users): No (same for OWA in a browser)

But you've mentioned "Shared Contact Lists", if you meant "Distribution Groups" created in GAL, then Yes.

Public Folders: Does not seem to be working for me in the OWA App as it works in OWA in a browser (i.e. using OWA in a browser, you can add a public folder by right clicking on Favorites, though only mail type public folders can be added to Favorites), following up on this issue, if it somehow worked eventually, I will provide an update here ...

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Richard Edge,

It should work if you are on the latest version of Office 365. I am wondering if you're still on the previous version. If you haven't already confirmed, then in order to confirm that using the info here: office.microsoft.com/.../am-i-using-office-365-after-the-service-upgrade-HA103982331.aspx, log into OWA in a browser and tell us if you see Blue theme (latest version) or the Orange theme (older version). If you see Blue theme then it should work. And in that case, please contact Support to help you address this issue or you can post it on Office 365 Mobile Access Forum too at community.office365.com/.../173.aspx.

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GB,

The instructions in my response that I just posted for Richard Edge will help you as well to figure out if you really are on the latest version of Office 365. And if you are, please open a support case or post on forum to get it addressed.

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That sounds like good, unfortunately I guess there is no integration with OWA Website for for Logon Format.

Set-OwaVirtualDirectory "owa (Default Web Site)" -LogonFormat Username -DefaultDomain contoso.local

Looks like OK in Desktop but in Iphone or in Ipad it still prompts for UPN.

Did I miss something?

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All you have to do to get your outlook mail on your I product is go to make a new account where it lists all the accounts and sign in on the hotmail icon sign in as your outlook mail and it will log you in

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Of course... First needs to be Office 365 and then the rest of the world! I still don't get it, how private cloud providers can afford to compete and co-operate with Microsoft where Microsoft is the biggest solution competitor ever. They design all fancy self-service portals for Office 365 and give nothing to the rest. Heeey... m**ons, we are providing MS solutions to the customers. Totally unfair in all areas... licensing, support, admin tools and portals!

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Still no support for On-Premise Exchange Servers.. It's like the SkyDrive Pro App: Only for Office365 customers.. It's really a shame what Microsoft is doing here.

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We use Exchange 2013 on-premises (CU 2) and can use the ios native OWA App without any issues!!

app version 15.00.0702044

server version : 15.0.712.22

First put in your username and password and click login

Then you wil get an error stating that you probably don't have an office365 subscription.

Click on Advanced and provide your account information (e-mail, username, password, domain) and the url of your owa : e.g.

webmail.yourdomain.com/owa

That is all!

What I don't understand is why Microsoft doesn't provide customers with this information and saying that it only works with Office365?

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