Articles about Outlook.com

Voice assistants are changing the way consumers interact with their computers and devices. Services like Alexa and Siri are enabling people to use voice to ask questions and control home components, such as thermostats and lights. It really is an exceptional thing.

Microsoft's Cortana is also a great voice assistant, and since "she" is included in Windows 10, countless consumers already have access. Today, Microsoft announces that it is improving Cortana with a new feature called "Suggested Reminders". The assistant will scan your emails for dates and appointments, and then suggest reminders -- for times when maybe you forgot to do so yourself. Previously available to Windows Insiders, it is now an option for all Windows 10 users. There is one very big catch, however.

Continue reading →

Microsoft is continuing to add new features and functionality to Outlook.com.

In addition to the integrated OneDrive support, the software giant added Box and Dropbox sharing to its webmail service earlier in the year, and today it makes sharing even more useful with the addition of support for Google Drive and Facebook.

Continue reading →

If you’re an Outlook.com user you may have noticed a lot more spam arriving in your inbox over the past day or so.

BetaNews writers have reported suddenly receiving a lot more junk messages in their Outlook.com accounts, and we’re not alone -- it’s a problem affecting users globally. But don’t panic, it’s nothing to do with the mega-breach affecting Tumblr and MySpace users, but rather something far more innocuous.

Continue reading →

Having a good password can make the difference between your account being hacked and receiving a notification informing you of a failed login attempt. Even though this should be common knowledge, it seems that many folks are in the dark about this. You do not need to look hard to find evidence of this, as there are many reports that reveal passwords like "1234567890" to be very popular still.

Since it is clear that it cannot rely on its users to make the right decisions about their account security, Microsoft is taking a proactive approach by "dynamically banning commonly used passwords". So, if you think that "qwerty123" is good enough to keep all your emails private, luckily you will not have to find out whether you are right or not.

Continue reading →

Outlook.com offers all the right features that most consumers expect in an email service these days. But, if you are power users, Microsoft believes you may be looking for more, which is why the software giant is now trialling a Premium subscription.

Costing $3.99 a month, this is not the first and only Outlook.com subscription. There already is an Ad-free plan for users who want to get rid of advertisements, that goes for $19.95 a year, however the Premium tier is meant to unlock more extra, pro-level features.

Continue reading →

Outlook has been a popular desktop app for what seems like ages and now it's online aiming to compete with services like Gmail and Yahoo. In order to differentiate itself from rivals Microsoft needs extras that attract customers to its offering.

Now the company is announcing a couple of updates including improvements to the address book and flight notifications for busy travelers.

Continue reading →

Skype has announced that Microsoft’s new web browser, Edge, will soon support Skype voice and video calls without the need for a plugin.

This will work for new versions of both Skype for Web and Skype for Outlook.com, and should be implemented "later this year". Considering that this year has just over three months to go, it’s safe to assume it will come pretty fast.

Continue reading →

Social integration is a key aspect of Microsoft's vision for its most prominent consumer-facing products. For instance, on Outlook.com you can have a Skype conversation, on Skype you can chat with Facebook friends, and on Windows Phone you can see your contacts' social updates, like tweets, in People hub. This is one of my favorite things about the software giant's products. It is also a standout feature that its rivals are not yet offering.

A core component is Facebook integration, which is present in Windows and Windows Phone, as well as Office 365, OneDrive and Outlook.com. But, thanks to an update to Facebook's Graph API, integration with the most-popular social network is going away in all currently-supported products.

Continue reading →

When signing up for an online service or installing new software, it's common to be confronted by a privacy statement as well as a service agreement. It goes without saying that few -- if any -- people bother to read through these as they are not only lengthy, but also packed to bursting with legalise. Microsoft wants to change that.

Starting at the beginning of August, the Microsoft Services Agreement and the Microsoft Privacy Statement will be updated so they are easier to understand. Microsoft stresses that the essential content of the documents will not change, just the way it is presented, and the language in which it is written. Covering products as diverse as Bing, Cortana, Microsoft accounts, OneDrive, Outlook.com, Skype and Xbox Live, this is Microsoft's latest bid to be more transparent to customers.

Continue reading →

It's not long since Microsoft started the rollout of a redesigned version of Outlook.com, and today the company gives Skype for Outlook.com a revamp. The update brings tighter integration between Outlook.com and the messaging tool.

In beta for the time being, the updated version of Skype for Outlook.com aims to make it easier to use the two tools together. It’s the same update that was rolled out on a preview basis to a limit number of users last month, but now it’s being made available to everyone.

Continue reading →

I am a hardcore Gmail user, as many people are, but I am not necessarily happy about it. Why? Google's Gmail.com user interface is horrid. Sure, it is functional, but it is outdated and hardly pleasing for the eyes. It is baffling as to why Google does not update such a popular service.

Conversely, Outlook.com is a treat to use, as not only is it more functional, but prettier too. Heck, you can even use your Gmail account with the site. Today, Microsoft announces a refresh of the Outlook.com website. Not only will it be more attractive than before, but it is also gaining many new features. Excited? Me too.

Continue reading →

Add-ons are a common feature of traditional, offline applications, but they're becoming increasingly popular in online services. Microsoft is the latest to get in on the action, announcing a batch of new add-ons for Outlook.com, including one from PayPal that makes it easy to make payments via email.

The add-ons were made possible when Microsoft launched the Outlook APIs at Build. They can be used by developers to create plugins with HTML, CSS3, and JavaScript. Microsoft is pushing the "write once, run anywhere" nature of the API that means the same plugin can run in Outlook.com, Outlook Web App and the desktop version of Outlook.

Continue reading →

Managing email attachments in Outlook.com just got a whole lot easier thanks to a new 'Save to OneDrive' feature which Microsoft is rolling out from today.

The popularity of cloud storage services like OneDrive mean you no longer need to email files to yourself to access them from anywhere, but people still do that from time to time for ease (and -- hands up -- I’m one of them), which can result in a messy and chockfull inbox. Save to OneDrive lets you move attachments you’ve received, or sent to yourself, straight to Microsoft’s cloud storage service, and all it takes is a single click.

Continue reading →

As first revealed on BetaNews just before Thanksgiving, a rogue Microsoft blog post seemed to let slip that the company was on the verge of acquiring Acompli. Now it's official. Both Microsoft and Acompli have confirmed that the acquisition is going ahead and the "innovative mobile email apps for iOS and Android" are now in the hands of Microsoft. Seen by many as the mobile app that Outlook.com deserves, Acompli fits neatly into Microsoft's plan to expand further into mobile realms.

Corporate Vice President of Outlook and Office 365, Rajesh Jha says "it's essential to give people fantastic email experiences wherever they go". The existing Acompli app is destined to become integrated into the work already carried out by the Outlook team. While iOS and Android are both mentioned, no reference is made to Windows Phone.

Continue reading →

Email overload -- it's something that we all suffer with; but what’s the solution? To help make it easier to focus on the emails you need to see and deal with, Microsoft is launching Clutter. It's a tool aimed at Office 365 business customers who want to be able to wade through the rubbish and get to the emails that actually matter.

In many ways, Clutter is Microsoft's answer to Google's Priority Inbox feature for Gmail. It determines which messages are those which you are likely to want to handle later rather than straight away, and moves them out of the way to free up your inbox. Less crap to sort through leads to increased productivity -- at least that's the theory.

Continue reading →