Hotmail became Outlook.com in late July (after we’d been showing it to you as “NewMail” since June”, Microsoft’s “modern” take on web based email, and since then, the new-look service has added 25 million active users, including about a third of them who are active Gmail users. Microsoft hired a research firm to talk to some of those Gmail users, and found that 4 out of 5 said they would switch to Outlook.com, according to a blog post on the Outlook blog this morning.
In addition, Outlook.com is adding some new features, which will be “rolling out in the coming weeks”. These include:
- A “one-click” Archive – just select messages and click the Archive button to move them to your Archive (or any other) folder
- More keyboard shortcuts, including a shortcut to get to the shortcuts. Coming soon, you’ll be able to just hit the question mark – ? key from the inbox to get a list of keyboard shortcuts, very useful for us part time keyboard shortcut users.
- New color themes
- Ability to toggle between “Reply” and “Reply All” as the default option
- Ability to set option to return to the inbox, or to the next message, after deleting a message
And one more thing, starting today there’s a new Outlook.com for Android app:
Many of us use Outlook.com as much on our phones as we do on a PC. For devices like Windows Phone and iPhone that support Exchange ActiveSync, you have built-in support for Outlook.com – no download necessary. Android devices aren’t consistent in their native support for Exchange ActiveSync, so starting today you can install an Outlook.com for Android on your mobile phone. The new app is free and works on all Android 2.x devices and higher.
Are you using Outlook.com? What new features do you want to see?