Microsoft Announces a Slew of Mobile App Updates
- Paul Thurrott
- Feb 01, 2021
-
17
Microsoft is making sweeping updates to its productivity apps on mobile, including Outlook, Teams, the previously-announced Microsoft Lens.
“We’ve explored the evolving needs of people’s mobility and connectivity and we are announcing a number of new Microsoft 365 mobile-first capabilities that help people bring balance to their day,” a post credited to the Microsoft 365 Marketing Team reads. “This includes organizing and transforming their physical world such as documents, photos, and live-action video into digital assets, and offer secure ways to help protect sensitive information.”
Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox
Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!
"*" indicates required fields
Here’s some of what’s new. It’s impossible to even try to document all of this in a readable, easily-digestible way.
Outlook for iOS. Outlook is adding conversational AI technology in “the coming weeks” with Cortana, which Microsoft describes as its first foray in delivering “interactive, voice forward assistive experiences that aim to provide helpful ways of organizing your daily life.”
Teams. Microsoft Teams will soon add user-created video content collaboration, enhanced with intelligent scanning technology from Microsoft Lens. Teams is also picking up some new Cortana features, with Microsoft bringing these capabilities beyond U.S. English to English in Australia, Canada, U.K., and India.
Microsoft Search. Microsoft Outlook, Teams, and Office are also getting new Microsoft Search capabilities, including support for natural language queries in English in the U.S. In Office mobile on Android, you can use Microsoft Search to find files you need using natural language.
Micro-tasks. Microsoft is adding a bunch of so-called “micro-tasks” to various apps, like quick forms and polls in Office and Teams a daily weather forecast in Outlook mobile calendar.
There’s more, but it’s a mess. You can check out the original Microsoft post for more information. Good luck.
Conversation 17 comments
-
b6gd
<p>I want the option, to have replies in Outlook for iOS at the top of the conversation vs at the bottom. I do not like this in gmail and I do not like it here either. I stick to the Apple mail app for this reason only.</p>