As of Tuesday, March 7, the Microsoft Outlook email management application is available free of charge to all users of Apple’s macOS operating system. A decision that is part of a strategy to win over users, both on Mac and Windows.
It’s a Christmas present in March from Microsoft. Starting this Tuesday, March 7, 2023, the Outlook email client desktop app is now free for all macOS users. If the mobile application of the Microsoft service has been free for some time on iOS and Android, until now you had to pay a subscription to Microsoft 365 (at a minimum price of 69 euros per year) to use its software on a computer.
As reported by the online media the edgethis decision echoes other projects to modernize Outlook to make it more attractive to users.
A redesigned app for macOS from 2020
Available for free through the Apple Computers App Store, Microsoft’s email management client appears to have been built to convert macOS users. Starting in 2020, the American giant updated the design and functionalities of its Outlook for Mac application, in order to better integrate the habits of these potential consumers.
In addition to supporting iCloud email addresses, the service adapts to Apple’s software code, integrates with the macOS notification system, and offers a calendar widget. Outlook also supports Apple’s Handoff feature, which lets you pick up where you left off when using the app on iPhone and Mac. Above all, this new version of Outlook has been optimized for M1 processors. and Apple’s M2.
Moving forward, Microsoft is also announcing that Outlook will soon add an icon to the macOS menu bar for quick access to a thumbnail version of your upcoming calendar events. The application should also integrate Apple’s Focus function, offering the possibility to filter the notifications received according to your type of activity (personal time or professional time for example).
Outlook more accessible to conquer users
Paradoxically, the Outlook desktop app still requires a paid subscription to be used on Windows, Microsoft’s operating system. But this contradiction should soon cease to be: Free Outlook for Mac is part of an overall approach to make the web client more accessible to users.
how do you remember the edgeMicrosoft has been testing a new version of Outlook for Windows for almost a year, called One Outlook. Unlike its current version, this one is based on the free web version of the service and takes the form of a Progressive Web App (PWA), an application that is technically made up of web pages to be more fluid and consume less RAM. Eventually, Microsoft plans to bundle the default Windows email and calendar app with this new Outlook, which is offered for free. ” a perspectiveto rule them all.
However, Microsoft does not plan to turn Outlook for Mac into a PWA: according to a member of the development team interviewed bythe edgethe company promises to improve its native app for macOS for a long time.
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