Christian de Looper / Digital Trends
Outlook might soon let you access the contents of your Gmail inbox and Google Drive from within the web mail version of Microsoft’s popular email client.
According to The Verge, Microsoft has been discovered testing out this new Google account integration feature for Outlook.com. The new feature was first spotted on Wednesday, November 20, by a Twitter user known as Florian B.
Florian B tweeted out a screenshot showing how to add a Google account on Outlook.com. Looking at the screenshot (see below), it appears that the new Google account integration feature can be accessed by selecting an envelope-shaped icon with a tiny plus sign attached in it’s bottom right corner. The icon is located on the far left-hand side of the screen. A dialog box will pop up asking a user if they want to try the new Gmail + Outlook feature.
Florian B (@flobo09)/Twitter
While the above screenshot indicates that only Gmail and the Google Calendar app will be integrated into Outlook.com, a second screenshot tweeted out by Florian B,also shows the integration of Google Drive into the Outlook web mail experience. In the below screenshot, it appears that users can access their Google Drive files via Outlook.com to attach them to Gmail or Outlook emails.
Florian B (@flobo09)/Twitter
Another screenshot also apparently indicates that once the Google account integration goes through on Outlook.com, the envelope-with-a-plus-sign icon turns into the well-known multicolored Google account icon.
It is unclear how many Outlook.com users have access to this new feature from Microsoft. In fact, Digital Trends tried to test out the feature, but the Google account integration icon has not appeared yet. The Verge and OnMSFT have both reported that they are unable to test the new feature since it hasn’t rolled out to them either. This may indicate that Microsoft is still testing the new feature and is opting to just slowly roll it out for now.
Florian B’s last tweet on the subject seems to support the possibility that Microsoft is still testing the feature: “The Gmail-Outlook integration is a good start, but it still feels early. You [can’t] easily move from one to the other …”