Microsoft's new Send app makes emailing as easy as texting

Despite being able to communicate with friends, family, and co-workers in myriad different ways, email remains incredibly popular. However, if you just want to send a quick message, ask a question, or fire off a reply, it’s often not as speedy or convenient as text messaging.

Send, from Microsoft Garage, is a new app that makes sending quick emails as easy as texting, without the need for a subject line, greeting, or signature.

It’s currently for people with Office 365 business and school email accounts, although Microsoft plans to open it up more broadly in the coming months. It will allow you to message any of your co-workers, and uses the Office 365 connection to keep communications synced with Outlook for referencing later.

"Imagine you’re walking into a big presentation and someone asks you to find out if your colleague will be attending. Chances are, you don’t have your colleague’s phone number, but you will probably have their email address -- especially if you’ve been emailing with them recently. You don’t have time to search your inbox, start a new thread, or even type out a subject line. You just want to ask that person, 'Will you be at the presentation?'" the Outlook team says. This is where Send comes in. Just tap a contact’s name to ask the question.

There are quick replies built in, to save you even having to type a reply if someone sends a message to you.

Cleverly, the app doesn’t show all of your emails, only those sent/received through Send, so you don’t have to wade through tons of junk to find a particular message.

Send is available now for iPhone in the US and Canada, and is coming soon to Android and Windows Phone.