Over 25 million active Outlook.com users, and today we’re making it even easier for Gmail users to switch

 

"The best reason yet to ditch Gmail" - Farhad Manjoo, Slate.com

Since the new Outlook.com launched in July, the positive feedback has been overwhelming.  Outlook.com was recently named one of Time Magazine's "50 Best Websites of 2012", won PC Magazine's Best Software and Internet Web App awards and has received a number of other accolades around the world.  To date, over 25 million of you are already actively using the new Outlook.com:

 

Outlook.com graph

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found that about a third of Outlook.com users are active Gmail users trying Outlook.com for the first time.  We wanted to learn more, so we hired a research firm to recruit hundreds of Gmail users - people that use Gmail as their primary email service - and asked them to try Outlook.com.  We asked the Gmail users to sign-up for Outlook.com addresses, forward email from Gmail to Outlook.com, and try Outlook.com's best features.  The Gmail users loved it.  Specifically, they shared the following opinions with us:

  • They prefer Outlook.com's clean user design
  • Outlook.com does a better job of blocking spam and it outperforms Gmail when it comes to helping manage unwanted messages like newsletters and daily deals
  • Outlook.com makes it easier to share photos and Office documents

The best part was, after spending just five days with it, 4 out of 5 of these Gmail users said they would switch to Outlook.com.

As millions of people have made the switch to Outlook.com, they've told us about the features that made the transition easier:

  • Keyboard Shortcuts: customers can choose to set up keyboard shortcuts in Outlook.com to mirror the shortcuts in the Outlook desktop app, Gmail and others.
  • Quick access to search operators: quickly find mail by clicking "/" and then using "To:", "Subj:", etc.
  • Tab/Send: rapidly send messages by clicking the "tab" key from the compose window to automatically shifts focus to the "Send" button
  • Conversation threading: you can also optionally turn on conversation threading (i.e. the ability to see all responses in a conversation via just one view).

But it's still early days.  We continue to listen to feedback on what enthusiasts want next - including making the switch from Gmail even easier - and build those features.  So over the next few weeks, Outlook.com users will start to see these new features in their inboxes:

  • One-click Archive: from the inbox, select messages and click the Archive button to move the selected messages to the Archive folder (or any other folder of your choice). It's a fast and simple way to move messages out of your inbox to find later.

Outlook.com one-click archive

 

 

 

 

 

  • More and more keyboard shortcuts: Outlook.com has dozens of keyboard shortcuts and we're adding even more. And better yet, we don't need to list them all in this post because you can now find all available keyboard shortcuts by simply typing a question mark when you're in your inbox.

 

Outlook.com keyboard shortcuts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • More customization of your inbox: we added several new ways to make your inbox look and work the way you want.

   We added more color themes:

 Outlook.com customization

 

 

We added the ability to toggle between "Reply" and "Reply All" as the default option.  We also heard that, after deleting a message, some people want to return to their inbox and others want to see the next     message. Now you can set that default option, too.  Both options are available via the Options page

  • Outlook app for Android: Many of us use Outlook.com as much on our phones as we do on a PC. For devices like Windows Phone and iPhone that support Exchange ActiveSync, you have built-in support for Outlook.com - no download necessary. Android devices aren't consistent in their native support for Exchange ActiveSync, so starting today you can install an Outlook.com for Android on your mobile phone. The new app is free and works on all Android 2.x devices and higher.

     

Outlook.com Android display

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you're one of the tens of millions of people that have made the switch to Outlook.com, we thank you.  We're committed to making Outlook.com the best email service and we appreciate the feedback you continue to provide. 

If you are a Gmail user and are still on the fence, take a look at our new features and give Outlook.com a try with just a few simple steps. 

Thanks again for using Outlook and, as always, keep the feedback coming.

David Law--Director, Product Management, Outlook.com

Office Blogs Comments

Comments: (49) Collapse

  • I hope you guys are paying attention to the Google Play reviews/feedback about the Android app, which currently has a measly 2.0 avg rating.  SEVEN's choice to simply re-brand the same old hotmail app is giving you a black eye with what are potentially a large pool of the most-likely-to-switch customers; Android users who show interest in using/already use other MS products like outlook.com.

  • outlook.com is by far one of the best mail clients with one major and important exception; the dreadful and perhaps most hated feature: ‘on behalf of’ tagging of messages sent from alternate email addresses.

    Oh product managers, how I long for the day when I can manage all my email accounts from outlook.com and no longer have to switch back and forward between other email products and Microsoft, but perhaps I should face reality and abandon all hope as that day will never come and I must take the virtual walk of shame back to the products from which I came and beg for forgiveness…

  • Thanks.  It is hopeful to know that you can at least confirm that they are tired of hearing about it :)

    In reality (for my needs) I could actually work around the issue if they would turn on IMAP since an IMAP account would allow me to specify my own smtp server on a mobile device and Outlook client while maintaining mail sync.  So that would be a fine secondary option....again.. at least for my needs.  

    I'm not quite sure why they don't just turn on imap.  The infrastructure is in place for other microsoft mail products.  In fact, there is this somewhat confusing page using an outlook.com url that doesn't actually refer to outlook.com email addresses and doesn't work for them.  

    help.outlook.com/.../cc875899.asp

  • The Android app for outlook.com can look like this:

    androiduiux.com/.../outlook-com-app-redesigned

  • Hi,

    My Outlook.com hasn't been update. I am not see the new theme color options and the archive feature. I am old Hotmail user upgraded to Outlook.com. Please help.

  • @waqashsn - we're rolling out server-by-server in the coming days -- so you might not have the new features yet, but you will soon.  Thanks!

  • Thanks for the reply David...are permanent inbox arrangements being considered?   I have to add that outlook.com + the 20.00/year ad free experience + 25 gigs of skydrive has been nothing but a win-win.

  • Outlook.com is a substantial improvement to Hotmail. However, as others have said, there are some very important features that I need before I could consider a full-time switch from Gmail:

    1. SMTP send (or equivalent). Microsoft has made noises that they've heard loud and clear about this but we're still waiting for some meaningful action. I don't want my recipients seeing strange 'sent on behalf of' messages, particularly if I am sending email from my business/work address.

    2. Custom signatures according to the send-as address. E.g. if I want to send email from my outlook.com address, it should use my outlook.com signature. If I send email with my work address, it should use my work signature.

    3. More options for reply-to, e.g. the default option should be to reply-to using the address the email from where the email was received. E.g. if I receive email from my work address, when I click reply, the default reply-to should be my work address.

    All of the above features I have listed are standard in Gmail. I can manage all my email from one interface without having to go to other sites and so forth. That's the same experience I want in Outlook.com - at the moment, it's still not quite there. Certainly, without the above features, I'd still need to login to Gmail on a regular basis, which means using Outlook.com would be superfluous and a waste of time.

    Don't get me wrong, I really like what I see, but there's still a lot of work that needs to be done by the Outlook.com team. The test will be to see whether they can allay concerns that Microsoft isn't great at detailed fit & finish. I'm pretty sure you can, don't let us down!

  • It’s great you are improving Outlook.com with new features but you should focus first in correcting some bugs that exist.

    I got nothing but problems  (which are still not solved) after renaming my account as you can see on this Microsoft Community thread:

    answers.microsoft.com/.../50c6d4db-1ff0-4979-838d-1e40f0cb3eea

  • Will Outlook.com have better support / integration with Apple Mac environments?  Over the years there have been Hotmail synch connectors built for Outlook - Windows version, but nothing for the Mac counterparts (i.e. Outlook for Mac).

  • I've been a Gmail user since 2004, jumping from time to time to Hotmail (and generally returning in few days to Gmail...). Now, the new functionalities and look of Outlook almost made me to completely change to this webmail. However, I have to say that I was waiting for a Outlook app for Android, to make the definitive change. The app came, and the first thing that I though was "are you kidding me?". This is the same old and ugly Hotmail app made by seven, which has nothing to do with the "spirit" of Metro-Outlook (as it also had nothing to do with the Hotmail look). I was hoping to have a nice Metro Styled app, simple as the webmail, and functional. Taking into account that Outlook was released some 4 months ago, I believe that delaying the app for that time, to only changing the icon and background color, sounds like andoid users are not important for Microsoft/Outlook team... sad. Hope you develop a new app, but "develop" a new one, not "slightly customize" a previously released one.

  • I am desperate to jump back from Gmail to Outlook with the new interface (and owning a Lumia 920 and soon to be surface) but i use three custom domains on google apps and therefore it seems difficult. what I want...

    - ONe microsoft account sign in and inbox

    - all three of my custom domain emails coming into that one inbox

    - the ability to flag each email in a color depending on which address it was sent to (a very very simple way of managing multiple inboxes in one.

    are the first two possible? i have read through all of the "switch from gmail" and no work around seems to suite my exact need.

    and any thoughts on implementing a color coded system (like the automatic label feature in gmail) so that i can color code incoming emails depending on which acocnt they were sent to?

    thanks!

  • Like Tracy said I'm surprised that some people able to profit $8268 in 4 weeks on the computer. did you look at this webpage http://Jump13.com

  • I love the new style of outlook.com, but when could we get this for the calendar? It looks weird in comparison to the beautiful metro UI of email, contacts and skydrive.

  • I'm with Ezequiel on this one. The Android app needs to be updated before I can switch over to Outlook entirely. MS was able to develop a pretty awesome app for SkyDrive on Android, so why not Outlook?

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