Recently Microsoft launched their new mail service – Outlook.com. At first glance it’s simple, elegant and sexy. Outlook is rich in features, the Metro UI, integration with Social Networks like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Skype. Microsoft calls Outlook as a “Modern Email experience”. I’m sure it’s the best alternative to Gmail and it’s a double punch for Google rival.
I’m using Gmail from 2008, but after Outlook launched (31st July 2012) I moved to Outlook, because of its features, stunning look and mainly Facebook integration and its loading speed. All the messages from my primary Gmail address are forwarded to Outlook, i.e., when I receive a new message in Gmail it sends a copy to Outlook so there is no need to open my Gmail account.
Here are the features what I loved in Outlook or the reasons why I moved to Outlook.
1. Cleaner and Minimal Interface
A much appreciable cleaner interface, mainly focusing on email content and there is no annoying ads. But its not responsive design, no problem there is a mobile version. It has 4 tabs at top – Mail, People, Calendar and Skydrive.
2. Social Media Integration
With Outlook you never miss any social media conversations, its seamlessly connects with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. You can directly chat with Facebook friends while reading a mail in Outlook. Also you can retweet, comment and like on Facebook status updates, and much more.
3.Skydrive and Skype
SkyDrive, a cloud storage service from Microsoft is used here. If we try to send very large files it will automatically sent as SkyDrive links. So there is no size limit for email attachments. Remember Gmail’s maximum attachment size is only 25 MB.
Microsoft integrates Skype in the near future and we can make video calls from the inbox. So let’s wait and see how it is gonna help us.
4.Automatically categorize Emails
Outlook automatically categorizes newsletters, social updates, and photos. If you receive a message with a document as attachment Outlook will automatically categorize it into Documents.
You can also create your own custom categories for different types of mail.
5.Right Click Menu
I never see a right click menu options in any other email clients, I think Microsoft introduced this feature (if you know any other, please let me know via comments). If you right click in any of the messages you will get a bunch of handy options like Reply, Forward, Mark as Read, Delete, Junk etc.
6. Block messages from specific sender
I hate spam messages, yes I know you also hate. Outlook has a better option to block receiving messages from a specific address or from a domain. To enable this head over to Mail Settings → Safe and blocked senders → Blocked Senders.
7.Recover Deleted Mails
If you accidentally deleted an important email from your inbox, don’t worry you can easily recover emails. To recover mails open Deleted folder in the left sidebar and click on the bottom link “recover deleted messages”.
8. Keep a message at the top
Everyday you receive lot of messages in your inbox, quickly identifying an important message is hectic. When you flag a message, it stays at the top of your inbox.
Some of the above said features are also available in Gmail but in Outlook its implemented in a simple way. Microsoft engineers designed Outlook from the scratch, instead of just providing an upgrade to the existing Hotmail service.
On the very first day Outlook launched I secured my Email ID, hope you also secured your names.
Choice is yours, which one do you prefer?
This article is written by Vivek Nath R. He is a boy with replete of dreams, sspiring to acheive few and working to pursue a little. A Tech Blogger and founder of Digital Advices. If you wish to write for HBB, kindly check this.
Agree with you on Outlook’s fast, clean and minimalist interface but a Google account allows you to access any of the Google services. Also the block feature can be easily implemented in Gmail. Skype integration is not implemented yet, but Gmail already has video calling. I still see Gmail as the winning player.
Domain based outlook is very safe in compare of Gmail, provide more safety for our personal data and also make our domain identity as well.
Sure enough, it should recover email that you want to move. But I like domain prefix outlook. more beautiful ^_^
I liked outlooks interface but i still prefer gmail. Really in love with it. I never got any spam content in Gmail and i’m very satisfied.
Outlook has really cool layout . It simply beats Google in each and every aspect. Loving it.!
using outlook as alternate email , just for 1 reason : I could get the choice of email id i wanted
hey Vivek, i think new outlook is better than gmail…. i also love to move…
as well small companies are moving there official mail account with google interface to outlook..
so now depend on how outlook is surfing,,,, next few months are crusical for outlook to gathering people with new technology.
what you think ???
Yeah, if you want a clutter free and simple interface, then you should move to Outlook. But the sad part is if we enable email forwarding from gmail to outlook we get the message in outlook after 10 or 15 mts.
Outlook is growing, on the very first day they got 1Million+ users. 🙂
so Avinash, what you would like to prefer…??? where you would like to go???
i dont have any another solution or option for outlook????
do you have any 3rd option which may replace with out look????
I really dint knew that outlook has so features in that even tough I have an outlook account. Thanks a lot for the share
i agree with you dude………i like outlook too much and think may be in coming time outlook can gain more and more users
Yahoo had right click menu for long years (with its new UI introduced in 2011).
Thanks for the info Athul, I’ll check it later
Thanks for the info Albert, I’ll check it later
Yes.. i too shifted to outlook because of a better and simple outlook.. skydrive and skype are also great features introduced in outlook..
Wow!
looks like Microsoft making planning for serious competition for Google.
Didn`t tried it yet.
I thought it would be another fail from Microsoft but after reading this post I think I need to try it once.
according to me…the most important is the security, if it can be better than gmail…why not to move …nice posting.mybe by this posting can make many people to choose it….thanks
Outlook is providing great features like social integration and faster loading speed which makes it more important
I have been using it over a week now and i’m lovin it. Everything is just minimal and i love that.
Hey Vivek, great news, thanks for the incredible information that you have shared with HBB readers. Off i go to create my profile.. yoo hoo 🙂
it was the constant spam which drove me away from hotmail back in the day, does Outlook have better anti spam protection?
Yes, new Outlook has a much improved spam Email filtering and newsletter Sweeping options. I didn’t get any spam messages till now.
That’s a great future in outlook. It just kicks all the spam messages out from the inbox.
Hey Vivek, I created an account with Outlook and also integrated my FB account, but I am not seeing any updates from FB in Outlook. Where do i see that?
First of all you must enable Show Public Content, to enable this go to Settings → Content from third-party networks and check Show public content from third-party networks.
When you read an Email of your Facebook friend, Outlook shows updates of that friend in the right side panel.
Hope you got it 🙂
Thx for the help. mate, that’s cool. It’s really innovative and intuitive to integrate emails with social network!
The first three features are new to Outlook.com. The other ones were already there with the hotmail. Just an upgrade has been Hotmail to call it Outlook.com 🙂
Bro, I never used Hotmail earlier, so all the above said features are new to me 🙂
agree with all this facts. 🙂
but stil if u have an google account, u get access to so many of Google’s services 🙂
I really like the new interface and features of outlook and those are the reasons for which I upgraded to outlook.
I love the feature ‘Restore Deleted E-mails’, One of it’s kind in it’s major rivals