Outlook for Android, iOS Gets New Features From Now-Defunct Sunrise Calendar App

Microsoft acquired calendar app Sunrise in February last year, and has slowly been integrating its features across platforms. Sunrise was due to shut down on August 31, but the company had announced a last minute extension at the time. The app was shut down on Tuesday, but the company isn't doing away with it completely - Microsoft has announced its latest update for Outlook for Android and iOS brings new features from the Sunrise app.

Outlook will be getting some of its design cues from Sunrise as with the update, the icons that indicate your events will be influenced directly by the keywords used to describe the event. For example, if you are planning to have a dinner, the event will be marked by an icon that shows a fork and a knife. The icons will be relevant to the events and will not only add to the aesthetics of the app but will also help in differentiating the events easily.

Further, if you type an address while creating an event, you will get suggestions powered by Bing for locations and once you choose one of the suggestions, Outlook will add a map to the event. The email client will provide you with the directions (with help of a maps app of your preference) once you tap on the map. You also get the option to change the duration of a meeting within the app using new date and time pickers, which will also be useful in creating a meeting. Attendees who have confirmed their presence will automatically get a notification for any changes. This feature will be rolling out to Android users soon, but is already available for iOS users.

Apart from these features, 'interesting calendars' feature has also been added to Outlook for iOS - a feature that was brought to Office 365 and Outlook.com accounts earlier this month. It will arrive soon for Android, and is only available to those users with an Office 365 email address. With this feature, you can subscribe to a particular calendar, say of a local sports team, and the events listed in that calendar will show up in Outlook. Microsoft has said that TV shows will soon be available for such subscription.

With the latest update, you also get the option to create Skype for Business meetings. Users will be able to edit recurring meetings from their Android or iOS smartphone, and can even choose if the edit applies to a single meeting or all future meetings. The ability to create recurring meetings will be added in a future update.