Microsoft Outlook "2024" Set to Replace Mail, Calendar & People Apps

[T0@st]

Microsoft has announced some major changes for a selection of integrated Windows 11 productivity apps—yesterday's preview piece declared that: "The new Outlook for Windows brings the latest features with a modern and simplified design to your Windows 11 PC. You can tailor it to your style and do more with the new Outlook for Windows! Learn more about the new Outlook for Windows here." Many W11 users are not fans of the current and very neglected set of Mail, Calendar & People applications, but forthcoming updates will provide some joy since the next version of Outlook is set to replace this messy arrangement entirely. A longer and more in-depth Insider article demonstrates the shape of things to come, including a dark mode! A trial version can be accessed via a toggle within the Windows 11 Mail & Calendar app.

Microsoft's roadmap/timeline indicates that new devices running Windows 11 will have the brand new Outlook app pre-installed, starting in early 2024: "The new Outlook for Windows (will be available) as the default mailbox application free for all to use. The Mail and Calendar applications will continue to be available via download in the Microsoft Store through the end of 2024. On existing devices, users can switch to the new Outlook for Windows from a toggle in the Mail and Calendar applications." The company's software engineers are alleged to be working on a project dubbed "Hudson Valley," which is rumored to be the next major version of Windows - aka 12 - arriving September 2024, which coincides with the removal of the improved Outlook app from Microsoft's store. The updated web-based client could be built into Windows 12, and positioned as the default email handling program.



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[JohH]

I tried using it and it is even more bloated and unresponsive than the existing Windows 10/11 applications. Almost like they don't want people to use them. Maybe they can fix it before they make it the default. But it's Microsoft they probably won't fix it ever

 

[RAINFIRE333]

I don't trust Microsoft or Office 365 at all & won't touch the new apps with a 10 foot pole. I applaud everyone that is letting Microsoft have a peak at your items, especially after their big AI push. Good luck!

 

[ilyon]

So...
Microsoft was able to make a quite nice free "outlook" app on Mac, but gives Microsoft users this ?

 

[Frick]

I don't trust Microsoft or Office 365 at all & won't touch the new apps with a 10 foot pole. I applaud everyone that is letting Microsoft have a peak at your items, especially after their big AI push. Good luck!

I'm on the internet. That ship sailed a long time ago.

 

[erocker]

I tried it and it's garbage. Once "Mail" goes, I'll switch back to something like Thunderbird.

 

[ChettManly]

Tried the preview. Hated it. Uninstalled all 3 and now I just load them in the browser. Just like with the Weather app. Microsoft peaked with Windows 10 it feels like. All downhill since.

 

[Frick]

So to the people who has tried it, why specifically is it worse than Mail?

 

[Fleurious]

Is this why my mail just stopped working in Windows 10 the other day?

 

[TheDeeGee]

I still use Live Mail 2012, because there is nothing out there with this fine layout.

 

[chrcoluk]

Does this effect Outlook as part of office? as that looks horrible, such big clunky UI elements and really dumbed down interface compared to what I have now, not even ribbon bar which I like.

 

[aktpu]

I don't hate it, but it's basically just outlook webmail wrapped to "desktop app" and lacks native feeling

 

[qlum]

As someone who has written e-mail templates in the past, will they at least use the rendering engine of the windows mail app, instead of rendering e-mails in word.
That would help things a lot.
That being said the windows 10/11 mail app is rather garbage as someone who has had to help customers install their mail so there is that.

 

[Leiesoldat]

So to the people who has tried it, why specifically is it worse than Mail?

I want to know this too. I currently use Mailbird on Win11 but like the Outlook Web interface (uninstalled the desktop app from my work computer since it was a massive memory hog) and would be interested in giving it a whirl.

 

[Frick]

Is this why my mail just stopped working in Windows 10 the other day?

It still works on the systems I use it

 

[kondamin]

I still use Live Mail 2012, because there is nothing out there with this fine layout.

have you tried em client?

 

[ymdhis]

It's so typical of Microsoft to take a working app and instead of optimizing it, they just outright replace it every few years.

 

[kondamin]

I want to know this too. I currently use Mailbird on Win11 but like the Outlook Web interface (uninstalled the desktop app from my work computer since it was a massive memory hog) and would be interested in giving it a whirl.

My main issue is that it constantly shows 1 unread email, the unread email is an add.
it's also slower than the old mail client. which doesn't show adds.

I will not use a mail client that shows me adds, I can get a small army of mail clients that do not show adds.

 

[Wirko]

Wow, in comparison to new MS mail clients, Outlook Express 6 is looking better by the day. (And no, it wasn't great.)

 

[dicobalt]

It certainly looks better than the current mail client. I'm still super irritated at the copious amount of whitespace in the folder list. It looks like something that belongs on a tiny phone screen or a television controlled with a remote. It's totally inappropriate for a PC screen on a desk with mouse and keyboard. Microsoft really needs to develop a dense UI mode.

 

[Battler624]

They couldn't even port their own Mac App?

 

[Wirko]

It certainly looks better than the current mail client. I'm still super irritated at the copious amount of whitespace in the folder list. It looks like something that belongs on a tiny phone screen or a television controlled with a remote. It's totally inappropriate for a PC screen on a desk with mouse and keyboard. Microsoft really needs to develop a dense UI mode.

Low information density is the plague that came upon us with Windows 8 and never went away but instead it spread to many web pages and other UIs. Later, to make things worse, it was reinforced by a senseless mix of very large and very small fonts, the latter often being grey on white. These dis-proportions sometimes do look and work better on a phone screen but more often they don't.

 

[bobbybluz]

Office 2007 is still my favorite version. To bad it won't work with Win 10 or 11.

 

[trsttte]

So to the people who has tried it, why specifically is it worse than Mail?

Haven't tried it yet but it doesn't support multiple accounts and inboxes which is a massive fail, that's been a core functionality of outlook since forever ago

For fuck sake microsoft, it's always the same shit going from bad to worse. The current situation of having a Mail app side by side with outlook is pretty broken but you don't fix it by breaking it even more!!!

From the images it looks like they just brought the limited web client to the desktop, that's certainly going to end well with enterprise customers used to and requiring the "advanced" functions outlook provides

 

[eidairaman1]

MS office 2007 on W11, runs just fine, best part is no Windows update to bork the os. (Doesnt mean I dont install updates, i just do it a better way, not forced)