As part of its efforts to refresh the native apps for Windows 11, Microsoft is planning to release a new Outlook. The app is being made from scratch and it’s now being prepared for a preview release, which could be announced during Microsoft’s hybrid event for Windows 11.
The project is dubbed ‘Project Monarch’ and this new Outlook is in development for more than a year now. It’s a reboot of the web app and it aims to unify all the existing email clients for Windows, such as Mail & Calendar and Outlook for desktop. With Outlook One, Microsoft wants to help users manage their email across different desktop platforms.
There are plenty of ways to access your work and personal emails. You can use Outlook’s web app, Outlook desktop or even Gmail. There are way too many mail apps available for Windows and it’s because the company has a habit of releasing more than one app that achieves the same function.
On Windows 10 and above, we have an app called “Mail & Calendar, which features Fluent Design, but it doesn’t support advanced features. If you want to get the most out of the Outlook experience, you need to download an application called Outlook and use Microsoft 365 account to view emails.
This can be complicated for new users and Microsoft thinks it’s time to unify the Outlook apps and create a new iteration of email clients with Project Monarch.
The new app is expected to enter the public preview soon as the leaked installer has already been updated with changes to reflect the upcoming public testing program.
Introducing new Outlook app – Outlook One
So what’s One Outlook? It’s a new Outlook client based on the web platform and Microsoft is planning to consolidate all the Mail apps into one unified application ‘One Outlook’ to help you manage your mail across Windows 10 and Windows 11.
This new One Outlook app was first spotted in May 2021 in leaked documents and screenshots revealed a new design similar to the web app.
It will have rounded corners, WinUI and improvements shipped to Microsoft Edge.
As you can see in the above GIF, Outlook One features a new loading animation and it’s identical to the web version.
Outlook app isn’t available as yet, but it’s likely that it will be released to the general public in the coming weeks.