Office 365 Groups and Outlook mobile apps come together...

[Tony Redmond]

Microsoft brings Office 365 Groups into Outlook for iOS and Outlook for Android. It's a good step forward because far too many Office 365 mobile apps exist today. It's also a natural step to move from email into group conversations, so I like this evolution very much. https://www.petri.com/outlook-apps-support-office-365-groups

[#2]

I actually disagree.

Groups is one of the Office 365 mobile apps that is clearly defined with a purpose. It is now one of the most used Microsoft apps in our Organization.

If Groups was only about conversations, I would agree, but I think it is just as valuable as collaboration platform as Teams is (not as rapid/high velocity/whatever). Tucking it away inside of outlook diminishes what I think are the most valuable aspects of Groups (which is actually not the conversations at all)

My biggest "concern" (probably not the right word), is mixing the “My” aspect of Outlook (my emails, my files, my calendar), with the “Our” aspect of Groups (now all the sudden, there are tons of files, calendars, conversations, mixed in together), things will get murky for end users.

The other thing I dont like about it is "forcing" users to use Outlook. Most of our users use the built-in native email clients for working with our O365 Email. I like Outlook and use it, but there hasnt been a huge driver to move over to it, and deprecating Groups app and moving it into Outlook doesnt feel like a good driver.

[#3]

Feel free to disagree!

I don't like the way that so many apps have evolved around Office 365. I think that combining some is inevitable and this is the start of the trend. I imagine that Microsoft will transfer over functionality from the Outlook Groups app to Outlook quite quickly so that Outlook is as feature-rich in terms of groups as Outlook Groups is now. It's true that Groups are less prominant inside Outlook than in its own app, but surely that's a matter of training?

As to forcing people to use Outlook rather than the native email app, that's all part of the cunning plan... ;)

TR

[#4]

And here I am eyeing my Windows Phone and wondering what you guys are all raving about...

I'm also not a fan of the "separate app for everything" approach. But I liked the Groups app, havent been able to test the Outlook one (WP).

[#5]

Time to move to iOS. It seems to me that iOS is the most complete and best developed/stable iteration of Outlook, including Groups.

The Windows 10 Mobile version of Outlook is stuck in the EAS ecosystem. It needs a lot of upgrade to deal with Groups. Who knows will that ever happen...

[#6]

As I said before this wonderful implementation of a technical community crapped out on me, the Windows 10 Mobile Outlook client is based on EAS and a lot of work is needed to integrate Groups. This is why I think Microsoft is keeping the Groups app for Windows 10.

Vasil, it's time to move...