Discussion I think Microsoft Outlook (the native Office email app) is going bye-bye

[mikeymikec]

Something I'm encountering quite often in my line of work lately are customers asking me about the Windows 10 / 11 Mail app being retired and replaced with what Microsoft call "the new Outlook", which basically looks exactly like the outlook.com website and wants users (of email accounts that aren't Microsoft ones) to consent to Microsoft siphoning all their e-mail through the outlook.com website.

For the first time though I've seen Microsoft Outlook (part of the 365 native apps for Windows) giving the same "try the new Outlook", and it's peddling exactly the same app as what's being offered to Win10/11 Mail app users. There's also a warning for Outlook users that this "new Outlook" doesn't yet support pst files.

This change is being forced on Win10/11 Mail app users as of "late 2024"; I haven't heard the same for Microsoft Outlook users, but it stands to reason IMO that they're doing this. Getting rid of Outlook also probably means getting rid of Microsoft Office Home & Business (the standalone non-rental version, e.g. 2021) because the only reason why someone would buy it is for Outlook.

I'm a bit puzzled though if I'm correct because surely Microsoft Outlook + Exchange earns a fairly serious amount of money for MS?

 

[quikah]

Yeah, they have been pushing this for 2+ years now.

Microsoft is building a new Outlook app for Windows and Mac powered by the web

Future versions of Outlook will embrace the web as a universal platform across PC and Mac.

www.windowscentral.com

Much easier to develop a single unified client instead of the seperate clients they have for Windows and Mac. personally pst files was the only reason to use the fat client, I had switched fully to the web app a couple of years ago, then my company switched to gmail. Blech...

 

[mikeymikec]

Yeah, they have been pushing this for 2+ years now.

I probably hadn't noticed it before because recent-ish versions of Office have often blathered about "try the new colour scheme change" type stuff and I probably put it down to that at the time, and my attention was only drawn to it this because of the Win10/11 Mail change that's worded in the same way.

I wonder if they intended to migrate everyone to the web-ified version of Office too, because they call it the same thing as the native rental version anyway. It would be a clumsy solution to say that Office Outlook is web-only but the rest are native, but that would be fixed by disconnecting Outlook from Office.

 

[Thump553]

Is there some sort of rule in software development that once a good product is essentially fully developed you MUST to develop new less useful versions? I loved Outlook 2007 and ran my law firm as well as private matters under it until MS no longer supported it. I tried out (briefly) MS's various new and improved versions over the years but none came close to the functionality of the old version.

 

[WilliamM2]

Office 2016 and 2019 lose support at the same time. Mainstrean support ended Oct. 2023. Extended ends Oct. 2025. Which was odd.
Office 2021 support ends in 2026, no extended support. So they are killing Office for Office 365.

But I see no reason Office Outlook would not continue to work if you already have it. My employer was extremely cheap, and as of last year, still had computers running Office 2002(XP), 2003, 2007, and 2010. Outlook 2002 required a few work arounds on Windows 7, and then Windows 10.

 

[lantis3]

There is no way MS is getting rid of Outlook. It's just a rewritten new Outlook (probably a lot of Javascript/.NET ) even if MS is pushing 365 subscription model.

 

[mikeymikec]

Interestingly there's allegedly going to be an Office 2024 including Outlook. Given the shortening end of support dates for recent standalone versions of MSO, I was expecting 2021 to be the last, but I think this is yet another example of Microsoft's utterly chaotic long-term strategy; I think MS had planned to ditch standalone MSO, I think MS had planned to ditch a native Outlook client in favour of outlook.com, but its larger customers said, "uh no" so instead of coming up with new strategies with clear distinctions between product names, we still have Office which could mean native or web, rent or standalone, Outlook which could mean native app, website, web app, an e-mail address, part of Office or not really, etc.

It's like the .net mess all over again.

 

[lantis3]

The fact is the boundary of desktop and cloud service is becoming blurring. MS is pushing more to the cloud yet Google is moving some apps to the desktop.

People want the advantages of desktop & cloud at the same time.

 

[Ajay]

Hmm, after changing the 'new office look' back a couple of times - it's finally come along far enough that I've left it enabled after a recent update. Different, but okay.

 

[Hulk]

I left Outlook over a decade ago for Thunderbird and never looked back.

 

[lantis3]

MS is using webview2 for new Outlook app. I can verify that with Task Manager after I opened my Outlook.com email account using the Outlook (new) App from Start Menu. No MS Office installed on my system.

Introduction to Microsoft Edge WebView2 - Microsoft Edge Developer documentation

Host web content in your Win32, .NET, UWP apps with the Microsoft Edge WebView2 control.

learn.microsoft.com

WebView2 end-user FAQ - Microsoft Edge Developer documentation

Information for end users about WebView2 processes, memory and CPU usage, and automatic installation.

learn.microsoft.com

================

OK. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/d...pported-account-types#supported-account-types

The preview version of the new Outlook for Windows supports the following account types:

• Microsoft 365 work and school accounts (Exchange Online)
• Outlook.com / Hotmail
• Gmail
• Yahoo
• iCloud
• Other accounts connecting via IMAP

Don't know if these feature will be added later.

Currently, POP and on-premises Exchange accounts aren't supported.