Microsoft offers free Outlook for Mac Preview to test Google Calendar & Contacts features

Microsoft on Wednesday released a standalone Outlook for Mac Preview version for free, as part of an attempt to gain more feedback on Google account upgrades including Calendar and Contacts integration.

The code represents the "earliest Outlook for Mac Preview build," Microsoft said, and is aimed only at people without an Office 365 subscription. Those who do have a subscription need to join Office Insider Fast to receive the same material.

Indeed, Insider Fast users have had access to extended Google support since early March. Microsoft cautions that the program supplies potentially risky builds that are on the cutting edge of Office development.

Google Calendar and Contacts data should sync like everything else in Outlook, with similar editing options. Microsoft is also building in a better Google setup experience, plus enhanced Gmail support, including Focused Inbox compatibility and automatic detection of travel and package information. The latter features were previously restricted to people with an Exchange, Office 365, or Outlook.com address.

The standalone Outlook for Mac Preview will expire on June 30. After that point, people will have to sign up for Office 365.

10 Comments

zimmermann 340 comments · 9 Years

About 7 years ago

Interesting. I always had difficulties with Outlook and Gmail. It never synced. But, to little to late, left Outlook for MacOS Mail and Calendar and Contacts. Still use Word and Excel and Powerpoint though, and OneDrive. Why did Apple never really tried to win over Word and Excel users with an as good offering with Pages, and Numbers and Keynote?

maciekskontakt 1168 comments · 15 Years

zimmermann said:

Interesting. I always had difficulties with Outlook and Gmail. It never synced. But, to little to late, left Outlook for MacOS Mail and Calendar and Contacts. Still use Word and Excel and Powerpoint though, and OneDrive. Why did Apple never really tried to win over Word and Excel users with an as good offering with Pages, and Numbers and Keynote?

MS-Office is good, but now free LibreOffice is starting to pick up according to maturity and trens. We use it on Macs (in fact it started with OpenOffice versions like NeoOffice long time ago). LibreOffice also supports cloud now and it seems to be far more polished than MS-Office chaos.

kelly93 5 comments · 9 Years

join the MS Insider program if you enjoy living dangerously. tried it for a very, very short time, they released Excel versions so unstable with large files they were unusable... to the point where i find it hard to believe there was any kind of alpha whatsoever.

soundvision 174 comments · 13 Years

zimmermann said:

Interesting. I always had difficulties with Outlook and Gmail. It never synced. But, to little to late, left Outlook for MacOS Mail and Calendar and Contacts. Still use Word and Excel and Powerpoint though, and OneDrive. Why did Apple never really tried to win over Word and Excel users with an as good offering with Pages, and Numbers and Keynote?

It likely never worked because it wasn't possible. Only the email portion of Outlook would work with Google, but not contacts or calendar support. This update in Outlook 2016 is the first time full Gmail support has been supported within the app on the Mac.

rob53 3307 comments · 13 Years

As far as I'm concerned all Microsoft software should be treated as potential malware and not loaded on any Mac. Enterprise customers need to challenge its use as well. Bloated, infected and not worth the client licenses.