Fall Release of New Mail App Is much Closer to Outlook in Functionality

July 14, 2013

Microsoft demoed last week a new version of its Windows tablet Mail app that I think represents the direction for all Microsoft Office functions on the Windows 8 Metro (tile) interface.

I postulated in this article that one thing needed for Windows tablets to take off is a line of Metro apps that can, for most people, fully replace their desktop copies of Office. Eventually, I am hoping that Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook will all have powerful Metro app equivalents. These apps would be true Metro apps—they launch into a full screen with no desktop. They would be much more touch-friendly than the current desktop Office applications. But they would also be much more feature-rich than anything we’ve seen in the current Metro apps, essentially replacing their desktop equivalents for nearly all uses and users.

In that same article I discussed how the latest OneNote app is essentially this. It’s an amazing Metro app that is almost as powerful as the complete desktop OneNote application, but still very touch friendly. It shows the direction of things to come.

But what about Outlook?

So, is there a Metro app coming that is at all close to Outlook’s desktop application capabilities?

Well, this was barely discussed in the press, but last week’s demo showed something like that. The demo showed a new version of its Windows tablet Mail app that is getting closer to Outlook’s mail functionality than the current Mail app, and is still fully touch friendly. It also incorporates many features of Outlook.com that users like, such as the sweep feature for newsletters. And it handles multi-windows better.

It won’t be released until the final Windows 8.1 fall release (the 8.1 preview that came out last month does not have this app), but it looks worth the wait—and it’s full of features that, up to now, you’ve only seen in Outlook (and more).

To See this in Action

To watch this new Mail app in action, go to this YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZiPuCMeYj0

And to read more about it, go to this article:

http://www.techradar.com/us/news/software/operating-systems/mail-in-windows-8-1-how-microsoft-is-finally-giving-it-some-power-1163446

No Tasks

MYN and 1MTD users should not get too excited, though. There is no Tasks module built in—this is purely an e-mail app. That follows the Metro app philosophy of dividing mail, contacts (people) , and calendar into separate apps. Not sure if Microsoft ever plans to release a standalone Tasks app, so in the meantime, MYN-Outlook-Exchange users will still be using TaskTask for a Metro app tasks solution.  And of course, without an integrated solution, I see no easy way to convert e-mails to tasks in the future of the Metro suite.

Other Office Apps Should be Coming

That also means we should at some point expect upgrades to the Calendar and People Metro apps to make their features closer to the corresponding modules in the current full copy of Outlook. And of course, powerful Metro app versions of Excel, Word, and PowerPoint should not be too far behind. I’ve heard rumors of that being true. When all that rolls out, I think we’ll see the true power of the Windows tablet platform.

One other thing. Notice in the video the upper left corner of this app, how the app is branded as “Outlook.” Looks like the same brand evolution that we are witnessing with Outlook.com, toward a mail-primary platform. Interesting.

Michael Linenberger