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Why We've Fallen in Love With Outlook for Mobile

3 minute read

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To celebrate Valentine’s Day this weekend, we thought we’d post about the new app that everyone is loving: Outlook for iOS and Android. Released a couple weeks ago, it has gotten a lot of buzz as one of the best professional-grade mobile email apps out there today.

(Note that it’s currently still in preview form for Android.)

Here are the top four reasons to fall head over heels for Outlook.

1. It’s not just for Exchange email. You don’t have to have Office 365 or really any type of Microsoft affiliation to use Outlook. You can add accounts from multiple major platforms, not to mention multiple accounts from the same service. For example, you might add the Exchange email you use at work plus your personal Gmail account. This app can handle those types of scenarios with ease. GeekWire reports that “The end result of that functionality is that Microsoft currently owns one of the best Gmail clients on the market today.”

 

2. You can move between tabs with a single touch. Other email apps make you tap out to a menu in order to access your settings, or even use an entirely different app for your calendar. In Outlook, the cleanly-designed bottom pane gives you a handy place to switch between modes.

3. File attachments are easy to manage. It can sometimes be tricky to handle email attachments on mobile devices, but Outlook solves this problem with the Files menu. You can link your cloud file services to your account in order to easily attach files to your emails. Recently-used files will also show up in this menu. Of course, you can also attach photos from your phone or take and attach a new picture with your phone’s camera.

4. The Focused inbox keeps you… well, focused. Your email is automatically distributed into two tabs in your inbox: Focused and Other. This feature works well right out of the gate, and over time it gets even better. We like how TechRepublic put it: “One way to think about it is that the Focused messages are the ones that deserve your attention when you’re checking email on your mobile device, and the Other messages can wait until you get back to your desk.”

 

These aren’t the only reasons to love the new Outlook; there’s also scheduling for quick email triage, sharing of calendar availability, and more. And while there may still be some flaws (that are easy to overlook, just like in any infatuation), we’re confident that updates and new features will be rolling out continually. Give it a try! We hope you feel the same.

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