Outlook.com is a PWA Now, Too

It’s not just Outlook on the Web: Outlook.com, Microsoft’s consumer email service, is now a Progressive Web App (PWA) too.

I’ve checking to see whether Outlook.com—which provides email, calendar, contacts, and task functionality to consumers—is being transitioned into a PWA since a reader alerted me that it was happening with Outlook on the Web. And this morning, sure enough, I got the Install prompt in the Brave address bar.

I assume you’ll see the same in the latest versions of Chrome and the new Microsoft Edge (perhaps only in Canary). I’m still using the Edge Beta channel, so I’m not seeing it there yet.

Good news, either way. It’s finally happening.

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Conversation 20 comments

  • safesax2002

    26 November, 2019 - 11:20 am

    <p>I tested notifications and I'm not receiving any. Am I doing something wrong or is there more to come?</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      26 November, 2019 - 11:34 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#492112">In reply to safesax2002:</a></em></blockquote><p>I don't believe that works at the moment. </p>

      • giskemo

        26 November, 2019 - 2:19 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#492118">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>If you mean meeting notifications email notifications etc I have gotten it. Used it for two weeks and I prefer it over the big Outlook which is soaked in functions and is very slow </p>

  • Rob_Wade

    26 November, 2019 - 11:20 am

    <p>I'm on the latest Windows skip-ahead build and on Canary channel of Edge. Outlook.com looks exactly the same as it has been for some time. No pop-ups like that described in the article.</p>

  • earlster

    Premium Member
    26 November, 2019 - 11:24 am

    <p>Does that mean it will come to the store? Call me a boomer (even though I'm not), but I somehow like the store model and installing apps from there, instead of from the browser.</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      26 November, 2019 - 11:33 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#492114">In reply to earlster:</a></em></blockquote><p>It means that it can. As to whether it will … I would think so, yeah.</p>

  • spacein_vader

    Premium Member
    26 November, 2019 - 11:45 am

    <p>So what's the benefit over just having a bookmark?</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      26 November, 2019 - 12:12 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#492122">In reply to spacein_vader:</a></em></blockquote><p>This might be helpful.</p><p><br></p><p><a href="https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/116101/microsoft-said-progressive-web-apps-build&quot; target="_blank">https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/116101/microsoft-said-progressive-web-apps-build</a></p&gt;

    • Stooks

      26 November, 2019 - 1:29 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#492122">In reply to spacein_vader:</a></em></blockquote><p>I asked the same question. </p><p><br></p><p>The only thing I can really see is that they "might" have offline access. </p><p><br></p><p>Also they can, if programmed properly, they can use some native OS features. That said going so far as to use the native features of a specific OS kind of defeats the point about ease of programming for multiple OS'es because now you have a iOS, Windows, Android….etc version. Also beyond simple applications a native app will outshine a PWA 8 days a week.</p><p><br></p><p>The bigger problem, if you will, is who even knows about PWA's outside of the tech community? Joe or Sally User is just going to use the web version because they do even know what a PWA is, which in turn does not make a great case for the developer to even bother with the PWA.</p>

      • curtisspendlove

        01 December, 2019 - 10:27 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#492225">In reply to Stooks:</a></em></blockquote><p>The idea is that the platform vendors implement a standard API. So the code calls a common API call and the OS does what it should do. </p>

  • cybrtitan

    Premium Member
    26 November, 2019 - 12:09 pm

    <p>This raises security questions for my organization, I'm involved in securing outlook endpoints right now. Does this allow for offline data? Is it available in 365 yet? </p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      26 November, 2019 - 12:10 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#492135">In reply to cybrtitan:</a></em></blockquote><p>It's just meeting the minimum requirements right now. No offline, notifications, etc.</p>

      • mclark2112

        Premium Member
        26 November, 2019 - 1:49 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#492147">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Paul, have you heard if there will be an option to cache offline data or not? I don't want to actually, and am happy the way it is.</p><p><br></p><p>Also, within the PWA, I see it remembers my password, and it seems to be pulling from Chrome. Is Chrome running in the background? Or does the PWA have its own engine?</p><p><br></p><p>We are looking at this for our front line workers to eliminate some risk of offline data, and the trojans (emotet) that have been attacking outlook data files.</p>

        • Paul Thurrott

          Premium Member
          26 November, 2019 - 2:01 pm

          I haven’t heard a thing, and Microsoft has never announced or discussed that it was doing this. Right now this is just something I’ve noticed happening.

          • mclark2112

            Premium Member
            26 November, 2019 - 5:52 pm

            <blockquote><em><a href="#492243">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>By the way, welcome to the Philly area! I was just at a little gathering of community bank IT guys in Harleysville, just south of you last week. If you ever want the best Cheesesteak in Philly, it's on me. </p>

  • ermanno_ferrari

    26 November, 2019 - 12:33 pm

    <p>Hi everyone, I had PWA on Office365 since the beginning of October, I even did a video on YouTube about that. </p><p>I've been using it in Chrome ever since and it works really well, although, as Paul mentioned, there is no offline access.</p><p>Notifications are working for me on Chrome, Firefox and Edge Beta too.</p><p><br></p><p>Thanks for your work Paul, always enjoyed it :)</p>

  • bart

    Premium Member
    26 November, 2019 - 2:30 pm

    <p>Wow, this is good news! FINALLY!!</p><p><br></p><p>Though not getting any notifications through the PWA. Anyone else?</p>

  • alsorun

    26 November, 2019 - 6:56 pm

    <p>I am on the fast ring insider program. I just installed http://www.outlook.com as an app using new Edge developer version. </p>

  • techreader

    26 November, 2019 - 11:58 pm

    <p>Is this different from simply going to Outlook.com and picking Menu &gt; Apps &gt; Install this app as a site?</p><p><br></p><p>Outlook.com has a big advertising pane on the right-hand side of the Inbox, which is a non-starter for me for my all-purpose mail app. And, if multiple accounts will be for Premium only, then I be very worried about having this replace the Store Mail app. Despite the goofy clunkiness of that app, Mail does support multiple accounts, lets you pin separate shortcuts in the taskbar for Mail and Calendar, and has no advertising (except that benign little up-sell notice when you are on an Outlook.com inbox). The Calendar app even supports Google calendars. So, I'll be interested in seeing how this develops, to say the least…</p>

  • JohnPC

    27 November, 2019 - 2:07 pm

    <p>Uhmm – I installed it via Credge a week or 2 ago. Current version 79.0.309.30… I just went in to "Apps" and then "Install this site as an app". Am I missing something?</p>

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