Forum Discussion
Outlook for iOS/Android App Availability for Government
Any word on when Government tenants will be able to use the Outlook for iOS/Android mobile apps?
I have users that are disappointed with having to continue to use the poor OWA apps and want to go to the better app.
35 Replies
We just started installing today. One issue though - the mail notifications on ios are not showing the message detail, just "You've got mail". Anyone else seeing this or have it working?
- "You've got mail" is the documented behavior - https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt846641(v=exchg.150).aspx
Sigh, and yet calendar items come across in plain text in notifications on the phone with no obfuscation. So what exactly are they trying to hide?
As it stands I won't be telling my users to use this app any time soon.
Android is the same.
- yeah we are seeing the same thing as well, regardless of iOS settings.
- Mike Hobbs
Microsoft
Game on!
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt846641(v=exchg.150).aspx
Outlook for iOS and Android is fully architected in the Microsoft Cloud and now includes a solution that routes data through Azure Government Community data centers (the Azure Government Community Cloud). This solution is FedRAMP-compliant and approved, which means the Outlook for iOS and Android architecture and underlying translation protocol service now meet the data-handling requirements for GCC tenants
- Successfully worked for me on iPhone! Glad to have the outlook app back!
Now let me go tell 5,000+ users to flip a switch because Microsoft didn't write an if statement.
Any news on when 2 accounts will be supported? We have multiple users who use a primary account and a shared mailbox. They need to see them both.- Hmm..the version prior to the March 29th update I could see the GCC option, after update it's gone.
Sigh . . . still no go with the latest Outlook for Android app in the Play Store.
After waiting so long we finally told our users to just use the built in apps on their mobile devices.
- Mike Hobbs
The linked article has details on how to enable GCC compliance for organizations that have either already deployed outlook or will deploy it.
I'm sorry that I didn't see this thread sooner and can share some insight. I think a few folks have hit the most important topics already.
- Outlook for iOS and Android was an acquisition by Microsoft (Accompli)
- Last summer, the app was re-architected to run in Azure
- User content (email, attachments) is cached outside the FedRAMP and CJIS boundary
- Office 365 US Gov is predicated on compliance commitments, so any Microsoft first-party products that are part of Office 365 subscriptions but don't meet our compliance commitments are disabled
So this explains why Outlook Mobile does not connect to GCC tenants. There is good feedback in this thread that the US Gov documentation may reflect this, but support teams and Outlook general documentation may need to be clarified.
Within the next few months, Outlook Mobile will become compliant with our GCC commitments (this should be on roadmap.office.com), and we will remove the block. In the meantime, if you have a Microsoft account team, reach out and let them know you're interested.
- Where is this on the roadmap?
- The Outlook Mobile backend services were audited in October and we've recently received the Security Assessment Report. Our engineering team is working through some final validations and documentation, and our commitment is to have the Outlook app enabled like normal no later than the end of March.
There is a reason for the confusion around this. Some already touched on in this thread. MS does not have consistent messaging nor consistent behavior.
The service description states the app is not supported. It does not say it can't work, just not supported. That also means of course it has not been certified to meet the various compliance requirements of the services and applications running from the GCC. My assumption here is that is because of the Azure piece, that most likely only runs from the commercial Azure datacenters.
The FAQ for Outlook app ( https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt465746(v=exchg.150).aspx ) - there is an entry on using with Government Subscriptions, near the top of the list in fact. The only limitation states that accounts you add to it must be in the same region. Which is odd - since GCC datacenters are only in the US (as far as I'm aware).
Behavior seems to be inconsistent. I can confirm that in some cases Government Subscription users can use the Outlook app with no issues. I know of multiple instances where it's used with no problems. But I've seen various reports like this thread where some users can't use it at all. Where it does work, you have to keep in mind the official position as stated in the service description.
- Out of curiosity, those people using the Outlook app and have a Government Subscription to Office 365, do their emails end in .gov?
- Hi Shane, there are many government agencies (with .gov domains) that assessed the security and compliance stance of Outlook for iOS and Android and determined that it meets their requirements. So, yes, some of the people have emails that end in .gov.
I can setup an Office 365 Government Exchange account with no issue in many of the email apps on either iOS or Android. What makes Outlook for iOS/Android so special that as a government tenant it refuses?
The other apps authenticate to the same servers that Outlook for iOS/Android do. The other apps access the same calendar, mailbox, contacts, etc. that Outlook for iOS/Android do.
Sorry, but I find all the endlessly regurgitated excuses ridiculous. Even my users are seeing through the smoke screens put out by Microsoft and agree that is a ridiculous situation where we can't use any Microsoft authored mail apps on our mobile devices to attach to our government tenants.
It's the same reason why Teams is not available for the U.S. Government sovereign cloud: not all of the necessary components (in this case, some Azure components) are available in that cloud, so any application that depends on those components is unavailable.
I didn't realize that was a thing, why can't Government customers use the Outlook for iOS and Android app out of interest? The OWA app is practically abandonware, it must be a drag to still to have to use that!
I don't know the why's, but we can't authenticate and the last time I asked (couple months ago) I was told it was because we are a Government tenant.
Thanks for the explanation, that's taking a long time (since https://blogs.office.com/en-us/2016/09/26/outlook-for-ios-and-android-is-now-fully-powered-by-the-microsoft-cloud/ in Sep 2016), but as has been explained it will take as long as it takes. In fairness, in the https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt774581.aspx it says for Outlook for iOS and Android "Not yet available for Office 365 US Government Community or Office 365 US Government Defense but coming soon". Hopefully, by Ignite this will be announced.
