Microsoft will continue to support its classic Outlook for Windows desktop app, which requires a paid Office license or a Microsoft 365 subscription.
On a support page, Microsoft emphasized how users “will write better emails with advanced AI built into the new Outlook for Windows to help you write impactful, clearer, mistake-free messages.” While some Windows 11 users may likely miss the built-in Mail and Calendar apps when they eventually stop working next year, Microsoft making a new version of Outlook for Windows available for free on Windows 11 is quite a big deal. The new client does support multiple accounts, though it currently lacks the ability to create unified inboxes, which was probably the Mail app’s real killer feature.
If you already use Outlook on the web (or for consumers), you’ll be in very familiar territory with the new Outlook for Windows. On the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, Microsoft explained that users will no longer be able to use or download its Mail and Calendar apps after September 2024. Microsoft’s new web-based Outlook for Windows app has been available in beta for quite some time, and the company had already announced that it would eventually replace its UWP-based Mail and Calendar apps.
