New Outlook Updates for iOS and Android Devices

In its relentless endeavor of making Office 365 applications available across various devices and platforms, Microsoft has recently released new Outlook updates for iOS and Android devices. In this post, we will discuss such updates in detail.

1. PIN lock: This new feature allows the users to ensure that Outlook is not accessed by any unauthorized person. PIN lock does this by enforcing password using Exchange ActiveSync so that whenever someone tries to sync mail with his/her device, Outlook will require him/her to enter a password and proceed with the sync request only if the validation holds true at the device level. The feature is available on both iOS and Android devices, but the manner in which it functions on both the platform differs slightly due to the difference in controls provided by Apple and Google.
2. IMAP support: With the new IMAP support, Outlook now has the ability to sync emails from the email providers like AOL.com and Comcast.com. Moreover, Outlook tries best to offer a push-like behavior with IMAP accounts by using IDLE wherever it is possible. However, if IDLE is not supported by a particular IMAP server, Outlook will sync emails automatically after every few seconds.
3. Custom swipe gestures for Android devices: This feature was first introduced for iOS devices, and has now been made available on Android devices as well. It makes rapid email triage a one touch experience for Android users. By using this feature, you can take actions like delete, move, flag, archive, mark as read/unread, schedule, and much more with a simple swipe on the screen. Also, unlike other email apps, Outlook also allows the users to customize their own swipe gestures as per their unique habits.
4. Toggle conversation view for iOS devices: By default, Outlook automatically organizes the user's email into conversations in such a way that all the messages with the same subject line are grouped together. However, many users don't find this very comfortable as messages from different senders can have the same subject line and grouping them together causes unnecessary difficulty in finding them. For such users, Outlook now offers a new toggle conversation feature that allows turning off the default grouping of emails and organizing them as threads instead. Currently, this feature is available only for iOS devices and is expected to be made available for the Android users in the near future.
5. Quicker remote wipe: Outlook has improved its admin-led remote wipe feature, which is now a lot quicker in execution. The new remote wipe is also an app-level wipe and not a device wipe like its earlier version. This wipe quickly deletes and resets the Outlook email, contact, calendar and file data not only from the device, but also from the Outlook’s cloud components. However, the wipe does not affect any other app or data on the device.