Microsoft Outlook is getting a much-needed facelift

[sincity]

At last year's Ignite conference Microsoft announced an opt-in experience that would allow users to try out the new Outlook on the web and now after eight months of testing, the updated version is beginning to roll out.

With its new release, the software giant is aiming to make Outlook for the web faster and to deliver a more modern experience for its users both at work and at home.

Microsoft has been testing a slew of new features for its email service that are designed to increase productivity such as categories and improved search. Categories will make it easier to tag, find or organize your messages and you can even add multiple categories to a message, add a category as a favorite or find your categories using search.

• Microsoft is making Outlook.com more intelligent
• Why you still need an email client in 2019
• Microsoft warns users about email security scam

Outlook on the web will even be getting a dark mode with the option to “turn the lights on” within individual messages in case you need to see something more clearly. A new snooze option will also allow users to postpone messages for later and they'll reappear in your inbox as unread.

Calendar and tasks

The Outlook calendar is also getting an overhaul and now users will be able to see an overview of their upcoming events in the month view. 

Business users can now create meetings more easily as they'll be able to do so right from the calendar with one click. Clicking on the dropdown menu for 'Add online meeting' will let users choose between having a meeting on Skype or in Microsoft Teams. You will even be able to see attendees' responses to a meeting invite right from within Outlook.

Finally, Microsoft has bundled in a new version of Tasks that syncs with To-Do. Also, now when you flag an email, it will be automatically added to your To-Do list.

According to Microsoft, the new Outlook on the web will begin rolling out to users in late July.

• We've also rounded up the best email providers of 2019

Via ZDNet

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/qjE-a9E4N0c