Even Microsoft's AI says the new Outlook is worse than Mail & Calendar on Windows 11

[Windows Central]

The Microsoft Store listing for the Mail & Calendar app includes an AI-generated summary of reviews that criticizes the new Outlook.

Even Microsoft's AI says the new Outlook is worse than Mail & Calendar on Windows 11 : Read more

 

[bradavon]

It's not though. Windows Mail and Calendar are really poor and basic.

New Outlook is certainly marmite at the moment but Windows Mail and Calendar weren't decent products.

 

[jasqid]

M&C is good for tablet mode, but doesnt have all the functionality most need. There is something missing from New Outlook that I cant quite put my finger on.

 

[Cmndr_Bytes]

I recently started trying out the new Outlook and there are features in it I really like. However there are features from the Outlook 365 client that are missing that I need/want. I have been having them both open and using the one I need at the moment.
I do think though i am probably using the new a bit more.

 

[Kaymd]

It's not though. Windows Mail and Calendar are really poor and basic.

New Outlook is certainly marmite at the moment but Windows Mail and Calendar weren't decent products.

The 'new' Outlook is an embarrassing mediocre app compared to the now legacy Mail and Calendar app. Unreliable background syncing, unnecessarily bloated for a simple built-in mail and calendar app. It's not really good in any one direction. Not surprising since it's Microsoft Edge camouflaging as a native mail app. Pinch to zoom does not even work! If I wanted a massive email program, I'd use the real Office Outlook. I most definitely expect more from the 'most valuable' software company in the world.

Although the legacy Mail and Calendar did have some content rendering issues (which Microsoft stubbornly refused to fix forever), it is a true native app - lightning fast, solid reliable background syncing, super-smooth scrolling, very responsive to touch interfaces, excellent pinch to zoom (as one would expect), a clean interface that focuses on the core of modern email.

I am strongly rooting for Wino Mail to carry on for the legacy Mail and Calendar. You can check it out in the MS store. The developer of Wino Mail gets it. Amazing what a single individual can do that the massive corporation fails at. Instead, they focus massive resources on gimmicky efforts like 'AI' Recall at the expense of perfecting fundamentally useful tools that billions of people use every minute of the day.

 

[GraniteStateColin]

I never really use Mail & Calendar, because I need the Exchange and Microsoft 365 features of full Desktop Outlook. Desktop Outlook also tries to steer its users to the New Outlook, but New Outlook is largely USELESS compared to the classic Desktop Outlook. NONE of the power features of Desktop Outlook are included -- rules, macros, the powerful editor, auto-archiving, admin controls, etc. NONE of those work in the New Outlook.

Worse, at least this was still the case in my last check a couple of months ago, the editor broke with how ALL OTHER WINDOWS AND OFFICE editors work with spellcheck. In everything else, when Word or another program (even text fields in the browser) detect a spelling error, they red-underline. Then, you can right-click on the red-underlined word to select a replacement. Right-click did nothing on misspelled words in New Outlook (at last test). Instead, it wants you to left-click, which should just position the cursor (to be fair, I see Word has recently also started providing alternatives when left-clicking, but it also still supports the right-click for those of us who are used to that from the past 20 years of that being the consistent UI element).

Also, if you have a long list of folders that is longer than what fits in the window in just about everything else, when you drag over that last it will scroll automatically if you drag the item to the top or bottom, enabling you to reach all folders, including those that are not currently in view. In New Outlook, even this basic drag-and-drop didn't work, with nothing happening when dragging to top or bottom, meaning no way to reach those other folders. Instead, you have to scroll the folder list first, then pick up the item you want to drag, then drop it in the desired folder. WTF!?

This app seems far, far, far from being ready for general use. It's missing all the features that make Desktop Outlook a powerhouse and it's missing the basic UI features that every Windows app should have, and even lowly Mail & Calendar already does most of these right.

I generally support Microsoft's efforts, but I would rate New Outlook somewhere between a D- and an F. The only reason it could rise to a D- is because it does work to actually send and receive email, but it does less than all the alternatives.

 

[Ykion]

Microsoft will simply let it the AI lie (fake the summary, taking only the positive) or remove the summary altogether.
Both which they did for Samsung Notes app when it was locked behind owning overpriced Galaxy Book PCs and people were (are) complaining to the unlistening void. Not to mention they purged ALL reviews before removing AI summary.
Make popcorn, sit, watch it happen, again, and then again, and then again etc....

What users think or feel does not matter at all. Products and services will just keep on getting worse as long as business will be based on capitalism, there is literally no other ending to this. Capitalism is unsustainable if you use human lives as a variable in the concept.

 

[vladnc]

It's not though. Windows Mail and Calendar are really poor and basic.

New Outlook is certainly marmite at the moment but Windows Mail and Calendar weren't decent products.

They were poor and basic, but, after their initial teething issues, they worked. They only had a few issues with their rendering, but they were good enough for me. In fact I preferred them to the Google web apps.

Also, the article is completely wrong when it's saying "the app is in preview". No, it's not in preview, it has not been in preview for months. It forced you to switch from Mail and Calendar to it for a while, and you could only temporarily revert to Mail and Calendar, so you can't say it was still in preview, a preview would be opt-in and you could revert from it. That is until recently, now you can't revert even temporarily. It's New Outlook or nothing.

And, talking about not working, for the last week I couldn't mark emails as read with New Outlook in either of my 3 email accounts (2 google and one outlook account). I mean, I can mark them, but as soon as I do a sync they are marked as unread again. The latest update didn't fix that either.

Then there is sending email, where the email remains in the "sending" state for ages, when in fact it has already reached the destination. Then the duplicate drafts it creates for no reason, or the invisible drafts or emails that only show as a counter, but disappear when you click the folder. Then the UI suddenly displaying empty squares instead of icons. Then the crashes. Then the duplicate windows. Then not being able to click links in my calendar entries. Then sending empty squares instead of the pictures I inserted in the emails. It's a horror show.

Basically now I use the apps on my Android phone and tablet to read my email, since Windows is forcing us to use this abomination.

 

[Kaymd]

They were poor and basic, but, after their initial teething issues, they worked. They only had a few issues with their rendering, but they were good enough for me. In fact I preferred them to the Google web apps.

Also, the article is completely wrong when it's saying "the app is in preview". No, it's not in preview, it has not been in preview for months. It forced you to switch from Mail and Calendar to it for a while, and you could only temporarily revert to Mail and Calendar, so you can't say it was still in preview, a preview would be opt-in and you could revert from it. That is until recently, now you can't revert even temporarily. It's New Outlook or nothing.

And, talking about not working, for the last week I couldn't mark emails as read with New Outlook in either of my 3 email accounts (2 google and one outlook account). I mean, I can mark them, but as soon as I do a sync they are marked as unread again. The latest update didn't fix that either.

Then there is sending email, where the email remains in the "sending" state for ages, when in fact it has already reached the destination. Then the duplicate drafts it creates for no reason, or the invisible drafts or emails that only show as a counter, but disappear when you click the folder. Then the UI suddenly displaying empty squares instead of icons. Then the crashes. Then the duplicate windows. Then not being able to click links in my calendar entries. Then sending empty squares instead of the pictures I inserted in the emails. It's a horror show.

Basically now I use the apps on my Android phone and tablet to read my email, since Windows is forcing us to use this abomination.

Very well described. The 'new' Outlook app is simply a mess, even after almost a year in preview.
I've been using Wino Mail for a while, and it's been such a pleasant surprise in quality for its age and essentially developed by a single individual. I hope it's the eventual successor to Mail and Calendar.

 

[computerdave911]

The Microsoft Store listing for the Mail & Calendar app includes an AI-generated summary of reviews that criticizes the new Outlook.

Even Microsoft's AI says the new Outlook is worse than Mail & Calendar on Windows 11 : Read more

has nothing to do with windows 11 , its in 10 too

 

[bradavon]

M&C is good for tablet mode, but doesnt have all the functionality most need. There is something missing from New Outlook that I cant quite put my finger on.

Tablet Mode isn't a thing in Windows 11 though and will be totally EOL at the end of next year when Windows 10 is EOL.

 

[bradavon]

The 'new' Outlook is an embarrassing mediocre app compared to the now legacy Mail and Calendar app.

I'd beg to differ and remember Windows Mail and Calendar are 12 years old at this point. New Outlook hasn't had over a decade of development. Appreciate not the point if you're expect to use it but Windows Mail and Calendar were missing a tonne of features they never got.

Windows Mail and Calendar are still embarrassing mediocre apps.

Personally I quite like New Outlook but that wasn't the point of this piece. Windows Mail and Calendar aren't decent apps either.

They were poor and basic, but, after their initial teething issues, they worked.

They're stil poor and basic compared to Classic Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mail and a load of better fuller featured Mail and Calendar apps.

They dont even support OneDrive which is wild when Windows Live Mail from 2012 did.

Also, the article is completely wrong when it's saying "the app is in preview". No, it's not in preview, it has not been in preview for months.

It's both Released and in Preview. Released in replacing Windows Mail and Calendar.

But Preview in that it's not replaced Classic Outlook, yet. Install Microsoft 365 and you still get Classic Outloook. Although frustatingly the version of Microsoft 365 installed on new PCs doesn't even feature Outlook.

Had to uninstall MS365 on my new Surface Laptop and reinstall it from the Store to get the full version with Classic Outlook.

It won't be considered fully released until it's fully replaced Classic Outlook.

Basically now I use the apps on my Android phone and tablet to read my email, since Windows is forcing us to use this abomination.

It isn't though.

There are a lot of very good free email clients.

 

[Arun Topez]

What is with all the tabloid-style clickbait on this site? Microsoft's AI didn't "say" new Outlook is worse. It "summarized" new Outlook is worse. There's a difference between asking it which is worse and it generating a response vs. simply providing a summary of reviews.

 

[TechFreak1]

What a sad state of affairs a company once fabled for productivty software can't get a email client right.... the outlook app is terrible.

It's so damn clunky...... as you can't even label different email accounts and you are stuck with the entire email showing .

My patience with Microsoft's studipity is running very, very thin.

 

[Kaymd]

I'd beg to differ and remember Windows Mail and Calendar are 12 years old at this point. New Outlook hasn't had over a decade of development. Appreciate not the point if you're expect to use it but Windows Mail and Calendar were missing a tonne of features they never got.

Windows Mail and Calendar are still embarrassing mediocre apps.

Personally I quite like New Outlook but that wasn't the point of this piece. Windows Mail and Calendar aren't decent apps either.

But Windows Mail and Calendar were never intended to be full blown mail programs - that's why you have the proper Office desktop Outlook (M365). They focused on the core of email functionality, which is what the vast majority of casual email users need in non-professional daily use.

The 'new' Outlook is not good in any one direction - nowhere near as robust and capable as the classic desktop Outlook, and not as focused, simple, fast, polished, lightweight as the now legacy Mail and Calendar.

There's a reason an excellent developer such as the Wino Mail dev is building a true simple, lightweight alternative to Mail and Calendar. If the new Outlook was anywhere as good, no one would bother. I can just pin my Edge browser email (or 'install' it as an app) and that is the so-called new Outlook. It's just pitiful and lazy on the part of Microsoft.

 

[Jack Pipsam]

Mail & Calendar were never inspiring and could have done with a lot more love, however they did the job.

The 'new' Outlook is a mess. Turning everything into an Edge PWA is not condusive to a good operating system. Another example is removing the basic video editor and trying to force people onto Clipchamp. Clipchamp has a time and place, but making people download a 'legacy' version of the Photos app from the Windows store just to trim a video is sloppy.

They could have spruced up WordPad, but instead that just died. Go use the web version of Word apparently is the message.

 

[TheFerrango]

Mail & Calendar were made to allow the user to send/recieve emails and organise appointments, the new PWA Outlook's purpose is to mine you for more data and sell advertising on you, that's why it offers a worse experience. That and being yet another browser-based RAM hog instead of something native

 

[naddy69]

Nice to see that "AI" finally gets something right.

 

[bradavon]

But Windows Mail and Calendar were never intended to be full blown mail programs

Then I don't understand the problem with New Outlook tbh.

IMO New Outlok is way better than Windows Mail/Calendar, they looked nice with Windows design language and touch I'll give them that but were so basic.

Personally I think all of them are too basic and still use Classic Outlook. I do like you can finally see a Google Calendar in Outlook in New Outlook, something Windows Calendar could do but Classic Outlook can't.

 

[bradavon]

The 'new' Outlook is a mess. Turning everything into an Edge PWA

New Outlook isn't an Edge PWA. This has been badly reported.

For example the Settins menu differs from Outlool.com/Outlook 365 Web compared to the Settings window in New Outlook.

It's a hybrid app. They're adding offline support.