Personally, I still prefer to stick with native Mac apps. My thought is that many of the Outlook probably use it because of work and that there might not be as much preference involved here.

As it highlights in the image above, it hopes to bring faster innovation with this shift. And that may be more the case than ever with Apple’s M1 Macs finding their way into the mainstream and users enjoying optimized Mac apps.īut on the flip side, Gmail has been conditioning us to use web-based mail for years and it’s understandable that Microsoft is searching for some efficiency on its end with Outlook. This shift could be controversial for all the users that prefer using a native app. With that hint, it’s likely Mac users will lose some of the Big Sur flair that Microsoft features in the current Outlook for Mac build. If you’re wondering how the new Outlook will look and feel, the report says to check out the existing Outlook web app. When it comes to how long this transition will take, Windows Central says a preview of the new Outlook web app will launch “towards the end of this year” and that it could replace Mac and Windows apps “sometime in 2022.” However, with the timeline decently far away, the report notes that Microsoft’s plans could change. Microsoft Outlook redesigned for macOS Big Sur – launched fall 2020 Timeline to the new Outlook That goal makes sense in light of Microsoft just launching the new Outlook for Mac that was redesigned for macOS Big Sur back in October and then updating it with M1 Mac support in December. I understand that it’s one of Microsoft’s goals to make the new Monarch client feel as native to the OS as possible while remaining universal across platforms by basing the app on the Outlook website. The report from Windows Central highlights that the new web-based Outlook will have “a much smaller footprint and be accessible to all users whether they’re free Outlook consumers or commercial business customers.”Įven though it will be a universal web app, it looks like Microsoft is planning to include native integrations for Mac and Windows like sharing, offline storage, and notifications. The effort is codenamed “Project Monarch” and will offer the same UI and design no matter if you’re accessing it via Mac, Windows, or the web. Reported by Windows Central, the move by Microsoft is to simplify Outlook so it’s just one product that works across all devices. Notably, the biggest part of that includes a controversial shift from dedicated Mac and Windows apps to a web-based app that’s platform agnostic. As Microsoft looks toward the future, “One Outlook” is the vision for how its mail and calendar app will evolve.

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