Microsoft Rolling Out New Outlook.com Design to All Users

After months of testing, Microsoft has started rolling out the new Outlook.com design to all users today. The new Outlook.com design has been available as an open beta for months, with users requiring to opt-in to get the new look. But starting today, users will get the new design as well as the features by default.

Microsoft has only started rolling out the new update today and says it will take a few weeks to complete. The new Outlook.com design is only available for the Mail features at the moment. Along with a refreshed look, the updated design makes it easier to use third-party extensions, and also comes with improved search feature and an revamped Skype integration. The new design for Outlook Calendar continue to be available as a beta, though Microsoft isn’t enabling it by default just yet.

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As for People, the company is starting to test a new design for that, too. Outlook.com on the web is getting an improved design for the profile cards, as well as improved integration with Outlook.com’s Mail counterpart. Looks wise, the People section is being updated to be consistent with the new Outlook.com for Mail, Calendar, Photos, etc. Once again, this new design is only available as a beta right now.

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Conversation 17 comments

  • Usman

    Premium Member
    14 March, 2018 - 4:17 pm

    <p>Yeah the calendar still needs some work, like the look and feel of it, but it's missing features like automatically adding flights and hotel reservations.</p>

    • Chris_Kez

      Premium Member
      15 March, 2018 - 11:51 am

      <blockquote><a href="#253210"><em>In reply to Usman:</em></a></blockquote><p>Yep. It's not clear if we're supposed to be giving feedback about things that are missing or just letting them know when things literally are not working, or letting them know about UI/UX/design preferences.</p>

  • dmos01

    Premium Member
    14 March, 2018 - 4:23 pm

    <p>Does anyone remember Paul's constant complaints on Windows Weekly about how his account hadn't got the upgrade to the now-old version?</p>

    • Nyghtfall

      14 March, 2018 - 4:45 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#253226"><em>In reply to dmos01:</em></a></blockquote><p>Ay-yup.</p>

  • Nyghtfall

    14 March, 2018 - 4:45 pm

    <p>Why does MS insist on doing things piecemeal? Do they not have enough engineers who can work on everything at once?</p><p><br></p><p>New MS Announcement: "Introducing the new menu bar! A new message editor to compliment it will follow when it's done."</p>

  • johnlavey

    Premium Member
    14 March, 2018 - 5:11 pm

    <p>I have been using the new Outlook in beta for a while. I am not impressed. One of my pet peeves is that when I try to open the message full window by double clicking the mouse, the message often moves to the trash folder. I really believe that Outlook was great at one time, but the more they fart around with it, the more unreliable it gets. IMHO</p>

  • Bart

    Premium Member
    14 March, 2018 - 5:17 pm

    <p>Coincidence this rolls out just before RS4 gets released? PWA'S available shortly? Sorry, soon of course </p>

  • Atoqir

    14 March, 2018 - 5:22 pm

    <p>I love this new version.</p><p><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: transparent;"> </span></p><p>It looks very modern and customizable. It performs fast and is way better visually and functionally then the Windows 10 UWP apps.</p><p><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: transparent;"> </span></p><p>And they finally addressed contact management after like 10 years of whining. The fixed address lists can be deleted and you can finally upload contact pictures through the website.</p><p><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: transparent;"> </span></p><p>Also the fact that it integrates with several cloud providers makes it great.</p><p><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: transparent;"> </span></p><p>I switched from Gmail to this since they always promise to update their dated UI for years but never do anything about and develop competing UIs like Inbox instead.</p><p><br></p>

  • graple

    14 March, 2018 - 6:02 pm

    <p>With all the emphasis on cross-platform stuff and PWA's, I wish MSFT would just make the Skype integration an "add on" option for those that use another client for this function, rather than forcing users to have two apps that do the same thing on your device. Contrary to MSFT's opinion, not everybody is in love with Skype.</p>

  • curtisspendlove

    14 March, 2018 - 6:08 pm

    <p>I agree with others. This new UI/UX direction is quite good. Pleasant to use. I’m a fan. </p>

  • warren

    14 March, 2018 - 11:44 pm

    <p>Interesting to see that the visual design of Outlook, Teams, VS Team Services, VS Code, the Azure Portal, SQL Operations Studio, and the various Windows 10 inbox apps are all really starting to resemble eachother. </p><p><br></p><p>I don't know if we'll ever get back to the Windows 2000 era where there was an absolutely consistent style across the entire server &amp; admin product suite, but this feels like the closest it's been in years. </p>

  • AnOldAmigaUser

    Premium Member
    15 March, 2018 - 10:03 am

    <p>Calendar beta does not have ability to add a meeting, just an event. I know it is beta, but really?</p><p>Tasks should integrate with the calendar.</p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">People is a hot mess with the way it tries to link contacts from different systems, almost always incorrectly. All I want is one contact record with all the relevant fields.</span></p><p><br></p><p>Mail used to have a "Reply with a meeting" option. That is gone in the beta/new Outlook.com. The ability to create a calendar event, meeting or task from an email is important for me, so I have started using Outlook desktop again. Perhaps it is overkill, but it is a consistent interface. </p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

    • Chris_Kez

      Premium Member
      15 March, 2018 - 11:47 am

      <blockquote><a href="#253405"><em>In reply to AnOldAmigaUser:</em></a></blockquote><p>The "beta" seems to have a bunch of stuff missing. I can only hope they'll bring this stuff back. For example, the mail beta doesn't have add-in's; but the recent Office Blog post shows add-in's as part of the "new Outlook" experience, so I guess that is one thing that's coming back.</p><p>I don't really know anything about deploying and testing beta software, but it seems like they should include some details about things that are coming soon vs. things that will be cut. Or is the idea that they'll cut a bunch a stuff and see how many people complain about its absence? This just seems like a bit of a mess.</p>

  • Chris_Kez

    Premium Member
    15 March, 2018 - 11:29 am

    <p>A tip for folks that have multiple addresses/aliases: By default the "new" Outlook.com will send all of your replies from your main account. It doesn't matter if you're replying to an email that was received by one of your aliases. If you have Outlook set to "show email as individual messages" just be sure to update the From field. If you have email messages grouped by conversation and you want to change the "From" field, you need to "expand" the message view by clicking on the double-arrow; then click on the ellipses next to "Discard" and you can select "Show From".</p><p>They have made this way too complicated. By default it should just always show the From field when composing or replying, and the default From field should always be the mailbox that received the message. </p>

  • Chris_Kez

    Premium Member
    15 March, 2018 - 11:57 am

    <p>I wish the Outlook team would provide a master list of all features/capabilities that are not present in the beta versions, and spell out for each one whether they plan to bring it back soon, bring it back in the future, hold it under consideration, or they're not planning to bring it back at all. I don't want to waste time giving feedback about stuff that is only temporarily missing, or be constantly annoyed/surprised by things I can no longer do. At some point it stops feeling like a "refreshed" Outlook and it feels like they've just replaced it with a new app. </p>

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