Microsoft Tests Revamped Outlook Design With Dark Theme Support on Mac

Outlook Mobile Hits Two Year Anniversary, Gets Extensible

Microsoft Outlook is getting some design love on the Mac. The company started testing a new update to the app with Office Insiders in the Fast Ring on Wednesday that introduces an overhauled interface.

The update brings improved graphics and icons to the entire interface of the app on the Mac. Microsoft has been introducing the modernized icons and ribbon across other Office apps on both Windows and Mac, so the changes aren’t anything surprising. The new icon changes do, however, make Outlook look significantly better on the Mac since it kind of goes with the aesthetic of the Mac experience.

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And for dark theme lovers, the updated Outlook app now includes a dark theme and supports macOS Mojave’s dark mode. Once you have the dark mode enabled on macOS Mojave, you should automatically see the Outlook dark theme. Personally, I am not a huge fan of dark themes on email clients as the main email itself continues to have a light background and it all just looks out of place. Either way, if you like dark themes, make sure to give the new Outlook dark theme a try on your Mac.

The update is available with Outlook for Mac version 16.20.

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Conversation 3 comments

  • harmjr

    Premium Member
    15 November, 2018 - 4:09 pm

    <p>Why not just turn on the High Contrast. Yuck!</p>

    • will

      Premium Member
      15 November, 2018 - 5:48 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#368365">In reply to harmjr:</a></em></blockquote><p>While I like that Microsoft is working to improve the UI, the whole minimalist UI is very white or dark depending on what you choose. If you go with the light theme in macOS the Outlook UI is very white and bright. </p><p>I think this could use some design tweaks to give it a fuller look, while still giving users the option of a light or dark theme.</p>

  • siv

    16 November, 2018 - 6:03 am

    <p>I always preferred the blue scheme we had in Outlook 2010 and I still don't get why that was never included in the more recent versions. Generally I preferred the 2010 version as nothing that I would call an improvement has occurred in Outlook since then, the only thing I do like is when you select to add an attachment it offers the list of the latest files you touched. That is useful. </p><p><br></p><p>I dislike intensely the new automated account set up, if you want to set up an account that isn't identified automatically you struggle to get to the manual setup. I just want the option right from the start to manually configure as I waste hours setting up accounts for clients who don't use one of the recognised email providers so you just waste hours playing this stupid game of it trying to guess what the settings are and getting it wrong until it finally lets you enter it manually.</p><p><br></p><p>It's like Clippy all over again. Sort it MS!</p>

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