Microsoft Pushes Forward with Transition of Mail and Calendar to the New Outlook

Last month, Microsoft announced and then briefly paused its plans to replace the Mail and Calendar apps in Windows with the new Outlook. Well, its reevaluation is done, and the software giant is pushing forward.

“The Mail and Calendar apps for Windows are being replaced with the new Outlook for Windows,” a July 20 update to the original announcement notes. “At the end of 2024, we will be ending support for the Mail and Calendar apps for Windows. The new Outlook for Windows helps people be more productive and in control of their inbox. We are excited about this change that will provide users with great new productivity features such as Microsoft Loop, message reminders, as well as file and people suggestions while composing an email. The new Outlook also offers more ways to stay in control with drag and drop emails as tasks, work hours and location, pinning and snoozing messages, and many others.”

I’m surprised this is in any way controversial, given how lackluster the Windows Mail app is, in particular. But when Microsoft announced that it would replace the Mail and Calendar apps in Windows with the new Outlook, it received enough negative feedback that it quickly pushed pause on the transition and said it would “reevaluate” the timing and implementation of this change.

That wording suggested that it would eventually push forward with its plans regardless. And looking at the new announcement, we can see that the only meaningful (if vague) change to the schedule is that the transition will now occur “at the end of 2024” instead of in September 2024. But Microsoft will begin auto-migrating Mail and Calendar users to the new Outlook in late August 2024, with the temporary option to go back.

Also, those who had hoped that Microsoft might allow them to continue using Mail and Calendar—as the software giant has done with some older versions of in-box apps, like the Photos Legacy app—will be disappointed: Microsoft will end support for Mail and Calendar in late 2024 and will require users to migrate to the new Outlook for Windows. (Or to whatever mail/calendar clients they prefer.)