Microsoft is updating its popular Outlook email service on the web with new features designed to help you better manage your calendar and take control of your busy day.
The first feature, known as Outlook Calendar board, will switch up the sometimes hard-to-understand grid view of your calendar that you’re familiar with using. It will put your meetings and tasks in a free-form view to let you see more of what’s on your calendar. It also has a customizable visual tool for organizing and managing calendars, files, reminders, and to-do lists in one place.
You can try out the Outlook Calendar board today by logging into your account on Outlook for the web, and selecting “Board” from the calendar views drop-down menu. If you don’t see it, you can check out these details on how to enable it.
In addition to the Outlook Calendar board, Microsoft is also introducing suggested times in Outlook mobile. This feature uses artificial intelligence and can learn from your work-related Outlook accounts to suggest data and times for when participants are available for meetings.
Microsoft mentioned that key meeting time information is otherwise hard to see on a small phone screen, which is where the artificial intelligence steps in.
“Outlook mobile will use A.I. to understand the meeting owner’s commitments, priorities, and preferences, and to suggest times to meet when attendees are free, even if the meeting owner isn’t,” said Microsoft.
These are just the first of many features Microsoft is planning for Outlook. Emoji reactions to emails, as well as a new sidebar launcher with links to the Microsoft 365 apps, are two other things coming soon to Outlook. There’s even a rumor that Microsoft could be working on a new “One Outlook” app that revamps the desktop emailing client as a slim-and-light web app.
Microsoft is also announcing new features for Teams. Thanks to Microsoft Teams Connect, you’ll be able to share Teams channels externally and internally, helping anyone to access key workflows. There’s also the rollout of PowerPoint Live and Presenter Mode in Teams, which will help presenters deliver a more meaningful presentation with notes, slides, and charts in a single view.