Microsoft Issues Major Update to Mail and Calendar for Windows 10

Microsoft Issues Major Update to Mail and Calendar for Windows 10

The Mail and Calendar apps that come with Windows 10—and are bundled and delivered together in the Store—are getting a major refresh today, Microsoft says.

“We know how important it is you to stay on top of your emails and manage your time well,” Microsoft’s Lynn Ayres writes in a new post to the Windows Experience Blog. “On the Windows 10 Mail & Calendar team, we’re working hard to come up with new ways to make this possible. Along with architectural improvements that enable enhanced performance and faster innovation, we’re excited to announce several new features today.”

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Some of these features have actually quietly debuted in previous builds of the apps. (See Focused Inbox is Finally Coming to Windows 10 Mail for an obvious example.) But here’s what all users of Mail and Calendar can expect to see, starting today.

Focused Inbox for Mail. Starting today, the Mail app will divide the inbox view into two tabs, Focused and Other, so you can keep the important mail separate from the mailing lists and other email-based nonsense. Don’t like Focused Inbox? No worries, you can turn it off.

@ Mentions for Mail. Microsoft has been making Twitter-like “@ mentions” available in its cloud-based email services and email clients since last year. (For example, Outlook 2016 got this feature last July.) And now it’s in Mail for Windows 10 too. You just use the @ symbol in email messages to make people in your address book part of the message. Doing so will add them to the To: line of the message as well.

More colorful Calendar. Now, calendar events can be color-coded by category so you can more easily scan your schedule and see what’s coming up.

Interesting calendar support in Calendar. As with Microsoft’s cloud- and mobile-based calendar solutions, Calendar for Windows 10 can now access so-called Interesting Calendars from the cloud.

Better travel reservation and package delivery support. This one works across both Mail and Calendar. “We are adding simplified summary cards in your inbox and calendar enabling you to quickly get to travel reservations and package delivery details, check in for flights or change hotels and rental car reservations or track the latest packages delivery status at the touch of a button, and stay on top of these events with reliable reminders,” Microsoft explains. This feature is on by default, but you can disable it if you’d like.

Calendar invite improvements. Now, when you invite someone to join a calendar event, you will see a Bing-powered location suggestion, an option to add Skype for online meetings, a scheduling assistant for Office 365 accounts, a fun emoji picker, and a people picker to help you quickly browse and select contacts.

Good stuff. I’ll start playing around with these new features today after Windows Weekly.

 

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Conversation 26 comments

  • jimchamplin

    Premium Member
    22 February, 2017 - 2:00 pm

    <p>Sweeeet</p>

  • Bart

    Premium Member
    22 February, 2017 - 2:15 pm

    <p>Very nice features. Are they US only for package/flight tracking and Interesting calendars? No word in the blog post</p>

    • LuxuryTravelled

      22 February, 2017 - 2:43 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#44304"><em>In reply to Bart:</em></a>&nbsp;I already get it within Outlook.com, and Im in the UK – so I presume if you get it if you have a compatible account. </blockquote><p><br></p>

  • wbhite

    Premium Member
    22 February, 2017 - 2:25 pm

    <p>I've mentioned this before, but back when Windows 10 was first released a bug in the calendar app shifted ALL my appointments by one hour. It wasn't a timezone display setting; the actual events' times changed. It took me forever to clean up that mess in Google Calendar. Since then, I've been gun shy about even opening that app (I even use Google Takeout on a monthly basis, just to further secure my data). I guess I'll give it a solid shot now, but that initial scare looms over me.</p>

  • lordbaal1

    22 February, 2017 - 2:32 pm

    <p>How is @ Mentions for Mail any different then putting in an email address?</p><p>I can see people sending email to people that they don't want to because of that.</p>

  • LuxuryTravelled

    22 February, 2017 - 2:41 pm

    <p>It doesnt look like we are getting it today though.</p>

  • Peter Vassiliou

    22 February, 2017 - 2:50 pm

    <p>Not today..These features will be made available in the next few weeks..</p>

  • kwicktech

    22 February, 2017 - 3:06 pm

    <p>I did get an update today, but I don't have the Focused Inbox feature.</p>

    • uSlackr

      Premium Member
      24 February, 2017 - 3:29 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#44329"><em>In reply to kwicktech:</em></a></blockquote><p>Focused inbox seems to have some restrictions to when it can be used.&nbsp; Look at Settings, Reading and scroll to the bottom.&nbsp; For me Focused inbox says "this setting cannot be applied to any of your accounts."</p>

  • Tommy

    22 February, 2017 - 3:54 pm

    <p>Updated, but in Mail's settings &gt; Reading &gt;Focused Inbox I get "This setting can't be applied to any of your accounts" despite having an outlook.com (well, live.com) email address.</p>

    • steveqlane

      23 February, 2017 - 3:54 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#44337">In reply to Tommy:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Same here and I have the new outlook.com. It will be interesting to see when the focused feature arrives for us.</p>

  • prettyconfusd

    22 February, 2017 - 3:59 pm

    <p>Great stuff, so many new features rolling out this week to apps I use daily which is great. I guess they're locking all the major feature updates to apps down in preparation for the Creators Update.</p><p><br></p><p>I mean, sure outlook.com, Outlook 2016 and OneNote desktop are still more powerful&nbsp;- as they should be – but it's great to see the apps fill out with more consumer and prosumer features.</p>

  • Uncommontater

    22 February, 2017 - 4:31 pm

    <p>Still waiting on the ability to handle non-Gregorian recurring events. Come on Microsoft. You've had this functionality in Office Outlook from the start. Where is it in the rest of your calendar offerings?</p>

  • edspar

    22 February, 2017 - 5:54 pm

    <p>aaaand we still can't search in calendar &lt;sigh&gt;</p>

    • miomir

      24 February, 2017 - 5:11 am

      <blockquote><a href="#44348"><em>In reply to edspar: My concern as well, they are adding cosmetical embellishments and forgetting key functions!</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p>

  • bbold

    22 February, 2017 - 11:15 pm

    <p>Nope. Not seeing it, either. I see that Mail &amp; Calendar was updated 'minutes ago' in the Store app, but no new features. Also, how do you change how the read window displays? I am on a different PC and forgot how to enable the reading pane changes. For instance, I want the message to open in reading pane and for the inbox folders not to go away on left. Not sure where to find this in Mail settings.</p>

    • Narg

      23 February, 2017 - 2:17 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#44368"><em>In reply to bbold:</em></a></blockquote><p>Have you rebooted yet? ;)</p>

  • VladimirGeorgiev

    Premium Member
    23 February, 2017 - 4:22 am

    <p>The Windows experience – beta testing and praying it will work XD</p>

  • Lewk

    Premium Member
    23 February, 2017 - 7:02 am

    <p>Are all these features U.S-only? I don't have&nbsp;travel reservation and package delivery support in my Australian Cortana yet, so I'm <strong>Highly </strong>doubtful it'll show up for me in my Outlook app. Which is ironic as I'm someone who actually wants these features. I see in comments everywhere where people get these features but don't want them and I cry myself to sleep.</p>

  • Narg

    23 February, 2017 - 2:16 pm

    <p>Good to see updates here.&nbsp; Built in e-mail should not be lackluster in these days.&nbsp; And so far, in Windows 10 it has been very lackluster.&nbsp; I hope they keep up the work on this, and add some REAL functionality and flexibility.</p>

  • ollik

    23 February, 2017 - 3:24 pm

    <p>So still no support for tasks, then?</p>

  • Jeff_S

    23 February, 2017 - 9:25 pm

    <p>I keep trying to like this "app", but the mail delivery is SO freaking slow, I can't use it!</p><p>I get emails through full blown Outlook, desktop, and email on my Galaxy, way faster than I do through the Win10 app, or Outlook for mobile, or the Outlook web app for that matter.</p><p>Simply way too slow, sadly.&nbsp; I think syncing between all of my accounts would be cleaner if I could use MS's "mobile" solutions, but I will stick with Outlook desktop. It pulls emails from my provider server so quickly!&nbsp; I can wait almost an hour for the same email to come through on Win10 Email, or the Outlook mobile client, sometimes.&nbsp; NFG.</p>

  • Jim_MAY

    27 February, 2017 - 12:29 am

    <p>Let's update security features first.</p>

  • dimadiall

    04 March, 2017 - 5:26 am

    <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Has anyone found out how to add Skype for Business online meeting details to a calendar entry in these apps? I believe I got these updates today but struggling to find the option to add a Skype meeting. </span></p>

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