Microsoft Outlook (for iPhone) - Review 2022

Shouldn't email be easier? Given all the amazing feats technology can reach, it'south a mystery that electronic mail remains such a pain in the neck. One of the few mobile e-mail apps making email better is—somewhat surprisingly—Microsoft Outlook. Information technology's surprising because the desktop version of Outlook, while tremendously powerful, has a reputation for feature bloat that would seem to make information technology incompatible with mobile devices. Outlook for mobile devices, nonetheless, is light and flexible. One excellent feature in detail shows a Focused view of your inbox, filtering out emails that probably aren't of import to y'all. This excellent iPhone app also has an integrated calendar, customizable swipe gestures, and other smart features. Plus, information technology supports many more email accounts than simply Microsoft's, including Gmail and IMAP accounts. Because it makes existent inroads at making email meliorate, the Microsoft Outlook mobile app is a PCMag Editors' Choice.

Toll and Back up
The Microsoft Outlook mobile app is available for iPhone (the version I used in testing), Android, and Windows Telephone. It's entirely free to download and use. When you lot set up your Outlook app, yous tin can connect information technology to a wide range of email services, including Gmail, Yahoo! Post, iCloud, IMAP, as well as accounts offered by Microsoft: Outlook.com, Exchange, and Office 365.

Microsoft Outlook (for iPhone)

You can also connect the app to storage accounts from Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, and Google Drive for quick access to files you might need to attach to an e-mail.

The option of apps and services you can integrate the mobile version of Outlook with is impressive, though it doesn't quite go as far as mobile email app Boxer, which too integrates with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Evernote.

Special Features
What really sets the Microsoft Outlook app apart from other email client apps is the Focused view I mentioned earlier. By default, the Outlook mobile app starts you off with this special view of your e-mail, beyond all the accounts you connect to it. It only shows letters that are likely to be important, while leaving out marketing emails, updates from social media, and other less of import messages. The Focused inbox is very similar to the signature feature of SaneBox, only SaneBox goes above and beyond past actually parsing the metadata in your letters to figure out which ones are truly likely to be most important. SaneBox is an amazing service that works with any e-mail program (expect Pop accounts), and information technology costs $7 per calendar month. The Outlook mobile app'south Focused view really merely separates greyness mail and machine-generated messages from other email. Only it's free.

There is one other mobile e-mail app that too tries to separate of import messages from less important ones, and that'due south Inbox by Gmail. Much like the Inbox version of Gmail on the spider web, this mobile app creates new tabs where it automatically sorts emails that are social media updates, promotional emails, and the like. However, it only works on Gmail accounts, whereas the Outlook app can consolidate a variety of electronic mail accounts and parse everything in them.

Microsoft made the excellent decision to turn the Focused inbox view on by default. It lets users feel a improve email inbox without having to first know most the feature and dig around in the settings looking how to turn information technology on. If y'all don't like the Focused inbox, you tin can disable it from the settings, though I bet the majority of users won't.

Another manner Outlook users tin accept a amend e-mail experience on their phones is by customizing swipe gestures. When you see a message and desire to quickly procedure it, yous can exercise so by swiping it left or right. By default, these actions will either archive the message or schedule information technology to appear as a new e-mail after, at a time you choose. If you tend to delete more than archive messages, you lot tin alter the swipe gestures to map them to unlike functions. This power actually helps people do something with their email rather than only reread it every time they check their inboxes, and it helps tremendously in the battle against e-mail overload.

Swipe gestures in email were made popular by the Mailbox app, which is due to be retired at most the same time this review will publish. Mailbox gave yous 4 swipe gestures, however, instead of only two (left short, left long, right short, right long). The Boxer app also has 4 swipe gestures, and you lot tin can customize what each one does, so if you actually want those two actress swipes, Boxer might be worth the five bucks.

Blueprint and Usability
The Outlook mobile app gives you lot a few more tools for improving your electronic mail feel, as well. Along the bottom of the interface are tabs for Mail, Agenda, Files, People, and Settings. I rarely see an integrated calendar in mobile email, and then I was thrilled to find information technology hither. People who spend a lot of time scheduling actually need to be able to flip back and forth betwixt their email and calendar every bit quickly every bit possible. Boxer also has a calendar, as does Seed Post, although that app is no longer available in the U.Southward.

The Calendar feature pays close attention to detail. A little pointer in the bottom right corner spins like a compass the farther you lot navigate from the current day. Tapping information technology brings you back to today. A menu at the top lets you cull to run across an agenda view of only your listed appointments, a i-twenty-four hours view, or a three-solar day view. Tap the carte du jour, and a listing of all your colour-coded calendars appears and then y'all can toggle which ones to display in the app.

Microsoft Outlook (for iPhone)

The Files view is also helpful, showing files from your various email accounts in a scrolling list. You can see the name of the file, when information technology was received, its size, and the sender's proper noun. There's another app specializing in email attachments called Inboxcube that gives you even more ways to observe what yous need. Inboxcube'due south hook is that it allows you to quickly see dissimilar kinds of attachments, such as all PDFs or all videos sent to yous via electronic mail. Yous can even drill down into a view of only emails that comprise links. For my taste, the Outlook app does a more than-than-adequate job helping me observe attachments, however, showing the most recent ones offset.

There'southward really only ane thing I dislike about the Outlook mobile app for iPhone: the pattern. It's totally functional and completely like shooting fish in a barrel to apply, but it'due south bland. Go set to stare at pages and pages of black and white text, accented every and so often by a piffling bluish or gray. Oddly enough, the design is noticeably livelier on Android. Inbox by Gmail is more colorful, and even the standalone Gmail app (which I rate very highly for Gmail power users) incorporates a petty more visual pizzazz with headshots of you and your e-mail recipients when bachelor. The line spacing has a tiny bit more room and the margins are wider in Gmail, and when y'all compare them side-by-side, Gmail looks a little less cramped.

Brand Your Mobile Email Better
Microsoft deserves a lot of credit for the Outlook mobile app. It incorporates features such equally integrated calendaring that are fundamental to a productive mobile electronic mail experience. The Focused inbox view is the star of the evidence. Information technology'due south a wonderful service for anyone who feels inundated by their inbox. A top-notch designer might exist able to make this app prettier, but that's a minor complaint against this powerful, gratuitous app. Microsoft Outlook for iPhone is an infrequent mobile electronic mail client and productivity tool and it'southward a PCMag Editors' Pick.