Microsoft is turning its Outlook.com and Outlook for the Web mail services into Progressive Web Apps (PWA). This allows any Outlook user to install the web app into Windows, macOS, Chrome OS, and other platforms that natively support PWAs. It’s a useful alternative to the cluttered Outlook Windows desktop app or the Windows Mail client that ships as part of Windows 10.
PWAs, by their nature, are essentially still websites, but they include better caching, notification features, and background functionality to make them appear more like traditional apps. Microsoft has been slowly adopting PWAs for Windows apps since last year, and Outlook is a sign that we may see similar apps for the company’s other Office products like Word and Excel.
If you’re using a Chromium browser like Chrome or Brave, then the Outlook.com support is live right now. You can simply “install” Outlook.com from the address bar, and it will be treated as if it’s a native app in Windows or macOS.
Microsoft is also experimenting with bringing Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Calendar support to Outlook.com. The software maker confirmed to The Verge last week that it’s “experimenting with a small set of Outlook.com users” for the integration.
Comments
It will be treated as if it’s a native app as far as you connected. If you sometimes not connected, better keep that regular client.
By jurijsk on 11.26.19 12:18pm
I mean… it’s email.
If you aren’t connected, it’s not like you’re gonna be sending or receiving emails anyway.
By vonbaronhans on 11.26.19 12:21pm
I need to see and search lots of old emails every day. Lots of info in all those emails. How do I do that if I’m offline?
And even if I’m online, all those operations are muuuch faster with a regular desktop email client than on fastest web client.
By splus on 11.26.19 12:36pm
have you used gmail search? No desktop localized search has been as fast as gmail/google app for biz (or whatever they call it today) for me searching 15 years and several hundred thousand emails. Actually, that inbox has over 25 years of emails since old OST/PSTs were uploaded years ago…
By sundial212 on 11.26.19 4:41pm
BTW progressive web apps can be just like regular apps, and work offline, and even use offline, or local storage. So email data could be saved locally with Microsoft’s progressive web app. Have to check it out and see what they did.
By sgodsell on 11.27.19 2:22am
Yeah it’s amazing how much better search works through Gmail, Outlook.com or even OWA compared to desktop Outlook (which is slow as balls even if you have your entire mailbox cached)
By dissss on 11.27.19 4:52pm
Your desktop email client must be very different from mine, because Outlook in Office 365 runs like a dog for me and I regularly end up using the web version of some of the mailboxes I need because the search works first time and fast without hanging my machine (Core i5 9400 8GB RAM, not the quickest but not terrible). If the outlook.office.com version works as an installable PWA I’ll switch in a heartbeat.
By GambaKufu on 11.27.19 4:15am
Yup, gmail has had offline mode for years.
By sundial212 on 11.27.19 8:17am
Definitely not. Web search is miles faster. Any server from a good email provider (Outlook / Gmail) will easily process searches faster than anyone’s home computer with an email client installed.
By Babeman on 11.27.19 1:54pm
True, but the regular app will still contain your attachments or an important mail that you might need to reference even when offline.
By Shadeslayer on 11.26.19 12:37pm
I’m not familiar with the limitations of the PWA version of Outlook.com. Can it cache emails and attachments (at least up to a certain time, like a week or month?)
By vonbaronhans on 11.26.19 2:11pm
Progressive web apps can use local storage. But naturally it depends on how Microsoft made, and implement their Outlook web app.
By sgodsell on 11.27.19 2:24am
I have tested Outlook.com PWA yesterday without connection. It won’t even open.
By jurijsk on 11.27.19 7:44am
That seems like a bad decision by the Outlook.com PWA team. Based on the, "Please develop PWAs" talks I’ve seen, one of the things they tend to tout is the ability to cache things locally for offline use.
Lame.
By vonbaronhans on 11.27.19 11:40am
Email isn’t only send/receive. People to a lot of catching up on emails in planes. This PWA won’t even open without Internet connection.
By jurijsk on 11.27.19 7:48am
The point of PWAs and specifically the Service Workers behind them is that the apps will still run unconnected. I haven’t tried Outlook as a PWA, let alone unconnected, so I can’t comment on what it does in terms of caching messages and so forth on the local machine like a "regular client" would.
By death_au on 11.26.19 9:49pm
Is this suppose to be news? I’ve been using Outlook.com as an app for months now in Chrome Canary.
By jdmp10 on 11.26.19 12:20pm
"…in Chrome Canary."
By Tom Warren on 11.26.19 12:36pm
I’m using Chrome Canary and i don’t see the install button, even in Google Messages why?
By Hani Mohamed Bioud on 11.26.19 7:15pm
Works with Chromium Edge too.
By andromorr on 11.26.19 12:36pm
Strange how that was omitted in this article. Seems pretty relevant lol
By BausFight on 11.27.19 12:50am
Outlook has insanely bad junk/phishing filters and ZERO useful tools to fight it, if youre going to use an app then get one with a real junk filter. I get so many phishing emails from "Apple ID" I am probably going to make a new email address. I havent gotten any on Gmail which is my junk account used for signing up to sketchy websites and should have tons of junk, and the Mail app on Mac that I use with the Outlook account flags the phishing emails as junk while Outlook.com just doesnt.
By Saganist on 11.26.19 12:41pm
It does okay for me, and I greatly prefer outlook to gmail.
By Porcupine-Tree on 11.26.19 12:46pm
Yea I get the same spam emails in outlook
By theclinton on 11.26.19 12:54pm
I get those same spam emails in my gapps account.
By Dirty_Dogg on 11.26.19 1:02pm