Microsoft celebrates Outlook mobile's second birthday with the gift of iOS add-ins

Outlook mobile is, believe it or not, two years old. Microsoft is not fighting the terrible twos, but instead celebrating by bringing add-ins to the iOS Outlook app.

While it is iOS users who are treated to the first look at add-ins, there are plans to bring them to Android as well. In addition to add-ins direct from Microsoft, there are also offerings from the likes of Evernote, GIPHY, Nimble, Trello and Smartsheet which will "help you accomplish awesome things you simply couldn't do before from email."

There is something of a focus on more business-oriented tasks at the moment. Microsoft says the aim is to help users to get more done without having to switch between apps -- the idea is to get as much done as possible in Outlook itself. For many people, the introduction of Microsoft Translator will be a real boon, and Microsoft suggests a scenario in which the arrival of add-ins will be useful:

Imagine you are at the airport and receive an email from a new customer contact from Italy. With add-ins for Outlook, you can translate the email from Italian to your preferred language, review and update the customer’s CRM history and update your notes or project board -- without leaving Outlook.

As mentioned above, it is iOS users who get to use Outlook add-ins first, and they should be available to Office 365 customers right now. The rollout to Outlook.com users will be a gradual process, and Outlook for Android users will get a look in... eventually.

In addition to iOS add-ins, Microsoft has also launched add-ins for Trello and Microsoft Translator across Outlook on Windows, Mac (in Insiders) and on the web.