Microsoft plans to replace Outlook for Mac with web-based version

Codenamed "Monarch," a future version of Microsoft Outlook is said to be a single cross-platform progressive web app for both Windows and Mac, potentially by 2022.

Even as Microsoft recently updated Outlook for Mac, and is now bringing native Apple Silicon M1 support to Office 365, the company is planning to completely replace its mail app. Currently in early testing, Project Monarch sees Outlook becoming a single, progressive web app.

According to WindowsCentral, this cross-platform web app is planned as the culmination of Microsoft's "One Outlook" plan, as described in a September 2020 video presentation.

The intention is replace each of the multiple different versions of Outlook for Windows and Mac, including the separate but related Mail & Calendar app on Windows 10. Microsoft reportedly plans to make a single version of Outlook that will be available cross-platform, and also to all users, whether they are on the free service or the paid business one.

There is already an online version of Outlook that is accessible on Macs, as part of a current Microsoft 365 subscription. However, the new Project Monarch one would integrate better with whichever platform a user runs it from.

So the new Outlook would be better able to store documents on the Mac, and work with Apple's notifications.

Microsoft has not officially commented on Project Monarch. It's expected that the company will begin previewing the new Outlook toward the end of 2021. Replacing Mail & Calendar on Windows is believed to be planned for 2022.

It's not clear whether this forthcoming version of Outlook will also replace the existing iOS app. Also not clear is whether making the new Outlook a progressive web app would affect how users have recently been able to set Outlook as their default email app on iOS 14.

14 Comments

docbburk 109 comments · 7 Years

About 3 years ago

Nice to see they are working on something that won’t be partially neutered on Mac. You cannot record the movements of the laser pointer while recording voice to your PowerPoint presentation on Mac, but can on the windows version (for several years now)!

rcfa 1123 comments · 17 Years

Glad I’m not using Outlook, because that would be the end of it.

Web apps, with very few exceptions, should die a quick, miserable death. The ultimate in lowest common denominator crap; perfectly suited for spying on users.

EsquireCats 1268 comments · 8 Years

As someone that uses Office on both platforms - is there any particular reason why Microsoft still can't manage to make these pieces of software on par with one another. I'm not talking about bringing over VBA or the complicated add-on features that the Windows version gets. I'm talking about the most baseline issues like displaying fonts correctly.

JinTech 1054 comments · 9 Years

rcfa said:

Glad I’m not using Outlook, because that would be the end of it.
Web apps, with very few exceptions, should die a quick, miserable death. The ultimate in lowest common denominator crap; perfectly suited for spying on users.

Agree. The internal motto at Microsoft "Create less with less."

dewme 5738 comments · 10 Years

docbburk said:

Nice to see they are working on something that won’t be partially neutered on Mac. You cannot record the movements of the laser pointer while recording voice to your PowerPoint presentation on Mac, but can on the windows version (for several years now)!

The situation with Outlook is different. The Mac version is actually better than the Windows version for one big reason - unified inbox. My hope is that Microsoft doesn’t dumb down the universal version of Outlook to make it more like the current Windows version. I don’t have any issues with notifications with Outlook on macOS or iOS.

I don’t mind Outlook. I use the native app versions that come with Microsoft 365. I had a lot of calendar and meeting invitation sync issues between Apple Mail and the Outlook users that I need to work with. The bottom line is that after using Lotus Notes for several years I can no longer complain about apps like Outlook, Apple Mail, or even Thunderbird. Being dull and boring is better than the daily sh**show that was Lotus Notes.