New features for more productivity

Microsoft has given Outlook a whole host of new features. They should ensure greater productivity, especially for working from home. The functions mentioned must be deployed before the end of the year.

Outlook, for example, gets reactions. This way, you can dismiss or like posts without throwing out replies. In the future, it is planned to equip all Outlook clients. Six different reactions can be selected. Reactions are visible to the sender and others who received the email. So looks like this:

Instead of searching for people or files, you can use @mentions to bring people and files directly into the editor. Appropriate suggestions are made to this effect depending on the context.

Outlook, in conjunction with Teams, introduces “meeting summaries”. This feature aggregates information, such as files, transcripts, and recordings, from a meeting into the appropriate calendar event:

The hybrid work culture requires a bit more organization when meetings are held in person or online. Outlook provides a tool for working hours and workplaces.

Team members can always request other people’s work locations when scheduling meetings. There is therefore an overview of the people who are on site and at what times at the same time:

The localization can also be adapted to spontaneous changes from the smartphone and works in the same way as the status message:

Additionally, they announce that schedule sending is now available in all Outlook applications. A composed message can be scheduled to be delivered at convenient times. In mobile apps, Schedule Send is hidden from the options when composing a message. Scheduled messages are stored with a corresponding tag in drafts until the time of transmission and can be edited or even deleted until then.

Sensitivity labels are also introduced for meetings. This way, everyone can ensure that the appropriate precautions (encryption, etc.) are taken for meetings with sensitive content. Additionally, the contents of the meeting invitation, including attachments, are encrypted according to the tag.

Microsoft is also working on deeper Teams and Outlook integration. To this end, team chats are integrated with Outlook and can be replied to from Outlook. You will start with team discussions from meetings. Due to the character of instant messaging, chat is more likely to be used for urgent requests in particular. The Microsoft 365 inbox then looks like this:

A chat is also offered for appointments directly via the Outlook calendar. For example, you can tell me if you are going to be late:

Searching in Outlook will also generate team chats in the future. A search query then searches not only for mail traffic, but also for both communication channels. You don’t have to try the two searches separately if you don’t know where things were communicated.

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