How to test Drive Microsoft Outlook’s future look

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Microsoft’s Outlook and email apps on Windows, Mac, and the web will undergo some major changes in the coming months as part of the company’s One Outlook initiative. But why wait? You can get a preview of what will change your Outlook experience now.

Later this year, you can expect Microsoft to standardize the user experience in the Outlook apps on Mac, Windows and the web, as well as in the Mail & Calendar apps on Windows 10. In 2022, each of these apps will be available. ported to a new “Monarch” client, meaning you use the same app on all platforms.

According to Windows CentralMicrosoft says the new Monarch client will add more OS-level integrations for Windows and Mac, including ‘offline storage, sharing goals, notifications’ so that the new Outlook feels like a native application on any desktop operating system or web browser you use .

Implementation of these changes will be slow, but you can get a preview of the new cross-platform interface by installing the new Mail Progressive Web App (PWA) today.

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How to install the Outlook PWA on Edge Chromium:

  1. Go to outlook.com.
  2. Click “…” to open the menu
  3. Go to Apps, click Install this site as an app.
  4. The PWA will open once the installation is complete.

On Google Chrome:

  1. Open outlook.com in a new tab.
  2. Click on the “+” button to the right of the URL bar (this may take a while to appear. Click in the URL bar if it is not showing).
  3. Click “To install” when requested.

Compared to the Mail and Calendar apps on Windows 10, Outlook PWA’s appearance is a lot simpler. It lacks the visual customization options you could use to customize Outlook in wild ways, but it’s much cleaner and includes the same email features as well as calendar and to-do list views. The similarity should make the transition to the PWA – or eventually the new user interface for the various Outlook and Mail apps later this year – much easier.

Illustration for article entitled Test Drive Microsoft Outlook's Future Look

Screenshot: Brendan Hesse

The Outlook PWA also includes easily accessible shortcuts to other MS apps such as Word, OneDrive, One Note, Meet and Skype. You can even manage your Xbox Live and Skype accounts from the profile settings, if they use the same email address.

That’s already a much more robust surface-level integration into the MS ecosystem, and I’m curious to see how it will expand once Monarch rolls out in 2022.

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