Microsoft launches the new Outlook.com officially

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Microsoft launched the new Outlook.com web interface today after eight months of beta testing and tweaking. Microsoft customers could opt-in to test the new interface early during that period and provide the company with feedback.

The new Outlook.com will be pushed to customers gradually starting in July. Microsoft plans to listen to customer feedback to improve the experience further going forward.

Organizations who blocked the opt-in toggle to join the new Outlook.com experience will be upgraded to the new version eventually as Microsoft will remove the option to block the new interface.

Here is a list of what is new:

* Categories. Categories are displayed in the message list to highlight these tags better.

* Dark Mode. You can turn on the dark theme for the site in the Quick Settings. Just click on the settings icon and toggle dark mode. The change is immediate. Microsoft notes that customers may turn off dark mode for individual emails to improve readability.

* Expressions. A click on the smiley icon opens options to add emojis or GIFs to messages.

* Favorites. Add contacts, groups, or categories to the favorites for quick access and seeing the message count right away.

* Tabs. Outlook users who jump between tasks benefit from a tabbed interface that displays all open activities and tasks in the interface.

* Time Management. A new feature that adds "intelligent technology" to Outlook. Includes Meeting Insights that may display relevant information in preparation of meetings, suggested reply with a meeting feature, and smart time suggestions to let attendees of meetings vote on the best time.

* Calendar Search. Improved search that finds matches across multiple calendars.

* Quick Events Creation. One-click from calendar to start the event creation process.

* Calendar Focus. Today's and tomorrow's events are highlighted in calendar.

* Snooze. Customers may snooze emails to deal with it at a later point in time. Snoozing hides the email in the inbox to return it at a later point in time.

* Month view with upcoming events. Month view displays the events of each day of the month and also how much time is left until the next event.

* Online meeting improvements. Online meeting creation now reflects an organization's meeting policies more closely. Online meetings may be joined from the event peek, and it is possible to see attendee responses to meetings.

* Tasks syncs with Microsoft To-Do. Outlook.com tasks sync with Microsoft's To-Do service.

Check out Microsoft's announcement on the Tech Community site if you are interested in additional details and more images.

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