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.