I’m a fan of Microsoft Outlook. I’ve used Outlook as my primary email, contacts, and calendar application almost exclusively for as long as it has existed. Even as a diehard Outlook user, though, I still recognize that there are some key features that are missing. As Microsoft developers work on the next iteration of Microsoft Office for Windows and Mac, there are a number of elements of Apple’s Mail and Google new Inbox app that should be incorporated into Outlook.
Be More Inclusive
In the actual Outlook program on either Windows or Mac OS X, you can add a variety of accounts—Exchange, Office 365, Gmail, or virtually any other IMAP or POP3 email account you have. You can also add multiple accounts when using the Web-based Outlook.com. However, if you’re using the Outlook Web App (OWA) site associated with an Office 365 account, or the OWA app for iOS, you can only connect to the primary email account.
Microsoft has been adding new features and enhancing the capabilities of the Web-based email service, but being shackled to just one email account makes it somewhat useless. The same is true for OWA on iOS. I’d like to rely solely on OWA, but I have a couple different Microsoft accounts, and a couple different Gmail accounts, and I need an email app that can show me all of the above in one place.
Unify The Inbox
Speaking of accessing all of the above in one place, Microsoft needs to take a hint from Apple’s Mail, or even from the Outlook for Mac application and provide a single, unified Inbox view. I have six email accounts configured in Microsoft Outlook, but I have to check them each separately.
I can create a Search folder for Unread Mail for each account, and put those folders in my Favorites so I can see at-a-glance when there are new messages, but that is still tedious, and results in having six different folders in my Favorites that are called Unread Mail. There are also hacks using VBA that will allow you to accomplish the goal of a unified inbox view, but that is still more effort than users should have to go through.
It’s simple, really. The master inbox should be a unified Inbox that displays all email from every account configured in Outlook. Microsoft could also include a toggle to opt out specific email accounts in case users have designated email accounts they would rather not have cluttering up the Inbox.
Get Smarter
Google Inbox doesn’t just display your email messages. There is an underlying intelligence that acts as a sort of email concierge. For example, Inbox will automatically detect certain types of messages like package delivery notifications, and travel reservations and show you the relevant data at-a-glance. Inbox will also put reminders and to-dos right at the top of your Inbox where you can’t miss them.
Outlook is smart enough to figure out when you meant to send a file attachment, but forgot to attach the file, so Microsoft should be able to expand on that, and take it to the next level. It would be nice if Outlook had some automated intelligence that enabled it to sift through messages, and highlight relevant information like Google Inbox.
Be Consistent
As I mentioned above, Microsoft has been working hard to add new features and capabilities to Outlook, and pushing to ensure customers continue to use Microsoft products and services no matter which platform or device they choose. One big factor in building and maintaining that sort of cross-platform experience is consistency.
To the extent that it’s possible, the features, capabilities, and conventions should be the same regardless of whether you’re using OWA for iPhone, Microsoft Outlook on a Windows PC, Outlook for Mac, or any other version. When there is a disparity, it’s confusing and frustrating for users who are comfortable with one version of Outlook when they try to use Outlook on a different platform or device, and discover that key features they depend on aren’t available.
I’m optimistic that Microsoft will include at least some of these elements in upcoming updates to Outlook. In particular, I’m hopeful for the unified Inbox in Outlook for Windows, and the ability to add multiple email accounts to the OWA for iOS apps.
