Microsoft releases Outlook mail app for iPhone, iPad and preview version for Android

Microsoft has released an Outlook app for iOS and also a preview version for Android, according to an official blogpost by the company. The iOS app allows you to manage both work and personal email on your iPhone or iPad. Outlook offers customizable swipes and actions so you can customise it according to your convenience. Another feature is that calendars can be integrated with Outlook email. Outlook apps will work with Exchange, Outlook.com, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail and other major email services. Microsoft also announced that they’ve seen 80 million downloads of Office on iPhone and iPad worldwide so far. Also the Android apps for Office will no longer have the “preview” label and will be available in Google Play Store as free downloads.  Users can download the apps, and then log in with their Microsoft Accounts to create files, print, edit, etc. For premium features, you will however need an Office 365 subscription. The Outlook mail app seems to getting some solid rave reviews already. This post on Business Insider by Steve Kovach says he deleted the Gmail app five minutes are he got the Outlook app. Kovach writes that the app is “based on another email app called Accompli, which Microsoft bought a few months ago.” He also points out that the Gmail app was giving him trouble for sometime, (messages would take time to load) and thus when Outlook came along, he was happy to get rid of Gmail. In fact he also notes that the Outlook app can sync with the Google Drive, Dropbox, and Microsoft OneDrive file storage services as well as Google Calendar. The Verge’s Vlad Savoy was also full of praise for the new Outlook app. He wrote, “Outlook pulls ahead is in the smoothness and speed of its interactions. To delete or archive an email, I need just a single, fluidly animated swipe.” He also says the app was using less of his iPhone battery, something every Apple user is grateful for. He adds that his “best pick for reading Gmail on an iPhone today is being provided by Outlook.” It seems the app is already a winner. We’ll have more once we download and use this. You can download the app from here.