Microsoft Launches Pre-Release Version of Outlook Web App for Android

Microsoft on Wednesday announced the availability of the pre-release version of its Outlook Web App (OWA) for Android 4.4 or higher devices. Previously in March, the company had announced that it will bring the native OWA mobile app to Android phones soon.

Users can download the app version 15.00.0969.009 from Google Play if their devices meet the requirements. The Android 4.4 KitKat or higher smartphone or tablet users will need a subscription to the latest version of Office 365 for Business to gain access to the OWA app.

At its pre-release stage, Microsoft had excluded Office 365 Personal and Office 365 Home users from it. We assume that the company will include access via these subscriptions with the full release version of the app, and also offer it to devices running OS versions lower than Android 4.4 KitKat.

The Redmond giant has also noted on its app page that, "This app won't work with Outlook.com (formerly Hotmail) mailboxes. Support for on-premise Exchange servers will be announced in the future."

The OWA app lets Android users manage emails, calendar, schedule, and sync contacts from the app itself. The OWA app users can browse, search and organise emails with Conversation View, Mark as Junk, Flag, Categories and more. Users can schedule meetings using "attendee free/busy and room finder features" and can also use their voice to look up a contact or schedule.

The OWA app also syncs mailbox's contacts, eliminates use of Exchange ActiveSync for checking the contacts. The remote wipe feature can erase all corporate data on the device in case of lost or stolen.