Ask Paul: How Can I Use Gmail with Outlook.com and Windows Phone?

John asks:

The Windows 8.1 Field Guide is the best already but please consider clarifying the issue of email accounts, aliases, etc because Microsoft manages to confuse the issue.

Like many I’ve long used Gmail.com and also used this account as my Microsoft sign-in account. The question I have is how do I have my Gmail going to Outlook.com and thereby become accessible on my Windows Phone 8.1 Phone?

My Windows 360 Outlook gets my gmail so that’s why I think I’m confused.

Answer:

If you’re using a Gmail account as your Microsoft account, you can’t get email (or calendar or contacts; or have Outlook.com email aliases) through Outlook.com. But the good news is that Windows Phone 8.1 does natively support the Google account type, so you can get all three (email, calendar, contacts) there: Just go into Settings, Email + Accounts and choose Add An Account and then Google.

The bad news is that Windows 8/8.1 does not natively support Google accounts, so you cannot access Gmail in the Mail app, Google Calendar in the Calendar app, or Google contacts in People. My advice there is to continue using the web apps for these solutions instead and hope that Microsoft finally adds support in Windows 10.