It comes right down to this: Microsoft is killing off its superior Mail and Calendar apps as a result of it believes its mind is smarter than yours.

One of my few nerve-racking moments throughout an in any other case peaceable Hawaii trip was once I discovered Microsoft is doing away with the Mail and Calendar apps. I’ve been an unabashed fan of Mail for years as a result of it does what I would like it to do, and nothing else. Mail has a easy, clear, pure interface.

But now Microsoft plans to interchange Mail and Calendar with the unified Outlook app interface, starting subsequent 12 months. Current Mail and Calendar customers can test-run the brand new interface by toggling the “try the new Outlook” toggle in Outlook’s upper-right-hand nook, which flips the interface to the brand new look. You can then flip again inside Outlook by returning the toggle to its earlier state. In my exams, the app crashed a few occasions, with out shedding any knowledge, however then grew to become steady.

So why is Microsoft force-feeding us Outlook? The causes for Microsoft’s choice are just about spelled out in Microsoft’s Outlook announcement post. First, by funneling everybody right into a single e mail utility for all our accounts (sure, even Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and extra), Microsoft will be taught extra about what we’re speaking about. This issues as a result of Outlook (and plenty of different elements inside Windows) will finally develop into inputs for Microsoft’s Copilot AI engine. The extra you feed it details about who you’re speaking to, what’s being mentioned, and so forth, the higher Copilot ought to theoretically function.

The second main cause comes right down to unification. There’s at all times been a elementary rigidity inside Windows and Microsoft’s apps: Should customers work inside a single, unified interface, or in separate, purpose-built apps? Mail and Calendar symbolize the latter strategy in its purest kind. Outlook believes within the former strategy, as your e mail turns into a jumping-off level for the remainder of Microsoft’s Office apps.

So there’s the background. Are you ambivalent about shedding Mail? You shouldn’t be, and right here’s why…

Outlook muddle

Oh my, the muddle. Outlook merely has a lot occurring. A left-hand column of functions. A second column of e mail folders, with RSS, social feeds, and user-created folders…all with potential drop-down menus. Various methods of organizing e mail, similar to Focused Inbox and extra. Different preview choices. It goes on and on and on.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Yes, Mail contains a few of that complexity. But on the whole, it merely displays the way you’ve chosen to prepare your inbox, and provides little extra. Where Outlook begins to really feel insulting is what we’ll spotlight subsequent.

Clutter on prime of muddle

Microsoft Outlook already has a search field. And a assist perform. Both options present that Microsoft is making an attempt to chop by means of the complexity of its person interface. But look out, extra is on the way in which. The new AI-driven Outlook Copilot will seem in a sidebar, and can be utilized to writer emails, counsel acceptable language, or get your hands on related paperwork. Do we actually want this? These are all capabilities already inbuilt.

I’m completely in favor of simplifying and automating the processes I listed above, however do we actually want even distracting muddle? The actuality is that as a substitute of constructing the interface “simpler” to make use of, swapping Mail for Outlook will merely add complexity.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Stability questions

As I wrote this, Microsoft was wrestling with a problem that took down Microsoft Outlook for the Web for the higher a part of a day.

Yes, that model of Outlook is a Web app. Outlook for Windows implies that the alternative for Mail and Calendar will probably be a standalone Windows app. Nonetheless, with the ability to tap-dance between dedicated native code and web apps, I stay unconvinced that killing Mail and Calendar will go easily. Give me a devoted Windows app that relies upon solely on Exchange as a degree of failure, and I’ll be pleased.

Killing a crucial characteristic

With Mail/Calendar, I can hold my work conferences on the identical calendar as my private dentist and physician appointments, just because Calendar accommodates each work and private accounts. The new Outlook app doesn’t, and also you’ll obtain a message saying so. Instead, the brand new app solely consolidates a number of private accounts. Apparently you’ll must have each the separate Outlook app for work, in addition to the Outlook for Windows app for private use. This is the entire silly “personal Teams” / “professional Teams” factor, once more.

Surely, we are able to determine a method to protect private and company accounts in the identical interface, and easily forestall staff from inadvertently copying knowledge from one to the opposite? I like particular, purpose-built apps, however redundant apps? No thanks.

Stifling competitors

By having a discrete e mail consumer—Mail—Microsoft has at all times held the door open for probably higher e mail shoppers to step in. Ditto for Web browsers, calendaring apps, and so forth. But now, by killing Mail and imposing Outlook as your totally built-in Windows e mail resolution, Microsoft is de facto squeezing the life out of third-party improvement. It’s already been tough sufficient for third-party builders apps to step in and enhance the more and more built-in Windows interface. Now, it will likely be even tougher. For instance…

Sunshine.com

Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer has resurfaced because the driving power behind Sunshine, a brand new app that guarantees to streamline your contacts. Anyone who tried out Windows’ terrible My People app understands that Sunshine provides a chance. But the place precisely? Not inside Windows, as Sunshine is strictly a cell app for now. So, will Sunshine even take the time to construct a Windows app, when Outlook, a driving automobile for AI, connects a lot of the Windows expertise collectively?

Microsoft has mentioned that you simply’ll be capable to obtain Mail and Calendar by means of 2024, even when your new PC ships with Outlook for Windows. I plan to and can use Copilot’s AI options, however I additionally intend to maintain utilizing Mail and Calendar so long as they’re obtainable. You ought to too.