Microsoft has announced a bunch of new useful updates coming soon to Outlook for iOS and Android. Redesigned navigation menu, quick replies for email conversations and intelligent search, powered by Microsoft Graph, are part of the new updates.With the new redesigned navigation menu, you can switch between different email accounts and folders, faster than ever before. The menu looks less crowded than before because of the improved layout and design but it still provides the same amount of information. You can also tap and hold on an account icon to keep the menu open.
Conversation view for emails has also received some improvements. The most obvious addition is the quick reply field seen at the bottom of each conversation. You can type in your quick reply here to respond to emails. In this view, you can still tag people by tapping @, or add attachments and calendar invites. The best thing about quick reply is that the email you are replying to, stays in view so you do not have to scroll up and down.
Search is getting smarter and will be powered by Microsoft Graph. The bottom navigation will get a search button, which will replace existing people and files buttons. Search will now feature your content from top contacts, recent files and things like travel itineraries and package delivery statuses. Frequent contacts will also be shown in search. Think of this like proactive suggestions, similar to how Google Inbox works. The goal here is to reduce the time you need to spend while searching files and contacts in your inbox. Microsoft Graph will provide the intelligence for important information to proactively appear in search.
The new navigation menu and updates to conversation view are now available in Outlook for iOS while the search experience is coming soon. All these 3 new features are still being worked on for Android and would be released in the coming months.
Here’s a video by Microsoft on the all new changes in this Outlook update:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NArbBkBEkj8
