Microsoft plans to replace Outlook for Mac with web-based version
William GallagherThe recently updated Outlook for Mac
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.
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
Andrew Orr
Christine McKee
14 Comments
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)!
Glad I’m not using Outlook, because that would be the end of it.
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.