Though initially conceived as one of many first free shopper electronic mail suppliers, Microsoft Outlook has gained worldwide reputation as the e-mail consumer of alternative for enterprise environments. Even should you use Apple Mail in your Mac, you’ve most likely come throughout Outlook as a part of the Microsoft Workplace suite in some unspecified time in the future.
The iOS model of Outlook has lengthy been obtainable free of charge, however should you have been trying to obtain Outlook for Mac, you needed to pay for a Microsoft 365 subscription or an Workplace license. Fortunately, not anymore.
Strive Outlook Mac free of charge — we are going to clarify the place to get it, how the brand new Outlook for Mac is totally different from Apple Mail, and what different choices you have got when on the lookout for one of the best mail app to match your wants.
Outlook for Mac: Key options
Because the identify suggests, Outlook electronic mail for Mac is an electronic mail consumer, nevertheless it’s additionally nice for scheduling conferences, conserving monitor of your to-do lists, and managing contacts throughout all of your accounts. Microsoft proudly calls it a “complete productiveness suite.”
While you obtain Outlook for Mac, what you get is a free, ad-supported model that works with Outlook.com accounts, Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo, and every other IMAP electronic mail accounts. (An ad-free model requires a subscription and comes with the complete desktop model of Workplace apps, 1 TB of cloud storage, and enhanced security measures.)
Key Outlook’s options embrace a centered inbox, calendar, contacts, notes, and to-dos.
- Targeted inbox: Outlook analyzes incoming messages and prioritizes them in keeping with their significance utilizing machine studying and filters out undesirable mail.
- Calendar: You may plan your day and schedule conferences straight from the Outlook inbox, sharing your availability data with others. Moreover, the macOS model of Outlook incorporates a calendar widget and boasts full integration with the Notification Middle in your Mac.
- Contacts, Notes, To Do: You don’t want to depart the app to jot down some fast concepts, add a process to your record, or lookup contact particulars — regardless of which of your electronic mail accounts has this info.
What modified within the new Outlook for Mac?
In comparison with the legacy Outlook, the brand new Outlook for Mac has been redesigned and optimized for Apple silicon Macs to turn into quicker and assist Handoff with iOS. Its newly added options embrace:
- Clever natural-language all-mailbox seek for messages, individuals, or paperwork
- Textual content prediction and superior dictation
- Fast Components characteristic that helps you save often used phrases or complete blocks of textual content for future use
- Swipe gestures and customized hover actions
- Absolutely customizable toolbar
- Snooze, Undo Ship, and Resend message choices
- Calendar widget
By way of potential weak spot areas of Outlook electronic mail for Mac, the most typical considerations reported by customers are linked with:
- Knowledge gathering practices: Microsoft Sync collects information (contacts, calendar, profile, messages) out of your IMAP supplier for storing on Microsoft’s servers. In response, Microsoft claims that it solely collects information for the good thing about your consumer expertise and never for advert concentrating on.
- Processing lags and mishaps: Targeted inbox would possibly take some time to course of at instances and is understood to mistakenly cover essential emails from the Targeted tab.
- Overwhelming UI: Having a lot of performance built-in into one app is about that can assist you keep productive however on the identical time could really feel extreme to somebody solely on the lookout for an easy electronic mail app.
In case you really feel you’re able to discover your choices with regards to discovering an electronic mail consumer that will work greatest in your wants, you’ll want to attempt Spark Mail.
Spark Mail is a good different for managing all of your electronic mail accounts (together with Gmail, AOL, iCloud, IMAP, Hotmail, Yahoo, and GMX) from a single inbox.
Spark Mail doesn’t maintain your messages separated by totally different account tabs. As a substitute, all of your mail involves a single inbox. That will help you keep centered, Spark Mail routinely organizes your incoming correspondence by the sender: letters from actual persons are separated from the remainder of the mail that pours into your accounts every day, and designated precedence senders are dropped at the highest of the record.
Different Spark Mail options will allow you to:
- Mark emails as achieved and out of the way in which
- Block undesirable senders
- Generate safe hyperlinks to particular person emails or dialogue threads
- Pin essential messages to the highest or set one thing apart to course of later
- Collaborate on composing emails with others
- Use an AI assistant to proofread, rephrase, develop, or shorten your textual content
There’s additionally a manner so that you can maintain monitor of all of your messenger accounts from a single app. You may carry your favourite immediate messaging apps into one handy window with IM+. Generally referred to as an all-in-one messenger, IM+ will maintain you linked, logged in, and up to date on all of the providers you add to the app.
IM+ helps WhatsApp, Skype, Fb Messenger, Twitter, Slack, LinkedIn, Telegram, Instagram, Tinder, and others. You may add a couple of account for every service and configure customized notifications.
Tips on how to entry Outlook on Mac
You may get Outlook Mac free of charge from the Apple’s App Retailer. No Microsoft 365 subscription or Workplace license wanted.
Merely obtain Outlook for Mac, add your present electronic mail accounts you’d prefer to handle, or create a brand new Outlook account, and also you’ll be prepared to make use of your new mailbox.
If, alternatively, you determine to handle your Outlook mail together with different accounts from the Spark Mail platform, it additionally solely takes a number of steps to arrange:
- Launch Spark Mail
- Go the the app’s high menu and click on on Spark Mail ➙ Add Account
- Enter the Outlook electronic mail you’d like so as to add to your Spark Mail inbox
- Check in along with your Microsoft account
Is the Mac Mail app higher than Outlook?
Is Outlook free to make use of? Sure. Is it now optimized to be used on Mac? Sure, fortunately. Is it higher than the native macOS Mail app? That will rely in your wants and private preferences.
Consider Outlook as Mail, Calendar, Contacts, and Notes apps merged into one. The app is filled with productiveness options that make it a sound possibility for individuals with busy schedules working inside a giant crew. If, alternatively, you have already got your most well-liked calendar and productiveness apps, you would possibly discover the minimalist Mac Mail app a greater match for you.
Each Mac Mail and the brand new Outlook for Mac permit for a limiteless variety of inboxes you may register and customized configurations to point out emails in a “unified inbox” view or separated by particular person accounts you’ve added to your mail.
You may ship, obtain, and successfully set up your emails with each of those apps:
- Add flags (Mail on Mac) or coloured tags (Outlook for Mac) to your emails to prepare entries by classes
- Prioritize your contacts with a VIP record characteristic (Mail on Mac) or Targeted inbox (Outlook for Mac)
- Create theme-specific (Outlook for Mac) or customized (Mail on Mac) message folders
- Filter out spam
- Schedule emails upfront and select the time they’re to be despatched
- Search inbox
It’s true that Outlook electronic mail for Mac comes with a spread of further superior options and helps third-party add-ins in case you’d prefer to energy up your electronic mail even additional. However, finally, if all you want is a strong send-and-receive electronic mail app, you may safely depend on Mac Mail. In any other case, undoubtedly go for an opportunity to obtain Outlook for Mac to test if its further performance is a bonus or distraction for you.
If the primary factor you’re on the lookout for when selecting an electronic mail app is safety, be sure you additionally take a look at Canary Mail.
Canary Mail gives end-to-end encryption to make sure that what is distributed is learn solely by you and the particular person you’re speaking with (superior PGP customers may even handle their very own encryption keys).
In all different respects, Canary Mail is corresponding to Outlook’s performance — it allows you to carry all of your present electronic mail accounts collectively and integrates seamlessly along with your favourite apps for schedules, duties, and dealing with information. With Canary Mail, you can provide your productiveness a lift with:
- Pure language search that immediately understands what you might be on the lookout for
- Customizable electronic mail templates
- Learn notifications
- Bulk mail actions — pin, star, transfer, snooze, mark as learn, and so on.
- Unsubscribe characteristic that allows you to shortly take away your identify from any mailing record with out the necessity to search for unsubscribe hyperlinks
- Sensible filters for auto-sorting your mail
- AI assistant that can assist you summarize incoming messages or write replies for you
Get Outlook Mac free of charge and see the way it compares to your present mail app
If something, the brand new Outlook for Mac Microsoft’s launch is a good immediate so that you can take a better take a look at your present electronic mail app. Are you curious about extra performance? Would you prefer to attempt new instruments for managing your mail, to-do lists, and every day schedule?
In that case, obtain Outlook for Mac or carry your electronic mail accounts collectively in Spark Mail that routinely separates emails from actual individuals from spam and brings messages out of your precedence senders to the highest of the record, or Canary Mail that may carry actual peace of thoughts about your private information privateness with end-to-end encryption of all messages.
Moreover, don’t neglect the app that might allow you to handle all of your immediate messengers — IM+ shows all of your social media conversations in a single window, making it pointless to test on updates throughout a number of apps.
Seize an opportunity to attempt all of the apps talked about within the article free of charge with the seven-day trial of Setapp, a platform of best-in-class iOS and macOS productiveness apps. Be taught what Spark Mail, IM+, or Canary Mail can do in your productiveness, and take a look at greater than 240 different choices to spice up your efficiency.
