Microsoft Outlook for Web Redesign to Start Rolling Out in July

Around eight months ago, Microsoft announced an opt-in experience to let users try out the new Outlook on the Web interface. After receiving a lot of feedback over the months and working on it, the new Outlook on the Web is now ready to ship. The redesign brings a lot of new features that promise to boost productivity. Some of the new features shipping with the new Outlook on the Web interface have been present on Gmail earlier.

On Wednesday, Microsoft in a blog post said its new Outlook on the Web will start shipping to millions of users later this month. So far, Outlook users could toggle between the new experience and the older version. Microsoft will also roll out the new experience to Office 365 users later this month.

The new Outlook for Web promises a faster and more modern experience for users, according to Microsoft. The new experience is a result of all the feedback Microsoft had collected from opt-in users. The revamped Outlook experience lets users assign categories to their emails, similar to the way it works on Gmail.

Outlook is also getting a snooze feature, similar to Gmail's snooze functionality. The feature will allow users to receive a specific message after some time, like an unread message. Microsoft says it has managed to add several improvements to Outlook over the last few months.

Outlook for Web is also getting support for a dark mode and support for emojis and GIFs. Users will be able to favourite a contact, group, or a category to easily access them later on.

Office 365 users will a bunch of features that are specifically designed for them. In the calendar section, it is easier to create meetings while Microsoft has added support for online meetings with Teams and Skype via a new drop-down menu. The revamped Outlook for Web will also let users get into an online meeting with a single click.

Microsoft has integrated its To-Do app, replacing the old tasks section in Outlook. Flagged emails are shown as Planner tasks that can be assigned to a specific person. Deeper integration with the To-Do app will let users access the app directly within Mail and Calendar sections on Outlook.

The refreshed Outlook for Web will begin shipping to all users gradually later this month. Microsoft says if an organization has blocked the opt-in toggle, users won't be able to get the new experience right away. Opt-in toggle for all other users will be removed by the end of July and they'll have to live with the new design.