Microsoft Outlook Vs Mac Mail
Frankly, there are so many mail apps for the iOS platform that it can be difficult to zero in on one. More challenging is sticking to the one you have chosen. I am guilty of hopping around productivity apps for some time now. I recently tried Outlook app after using Apple Mail for the past few months.
- Expand your Outlook. We've developed a suite of premium Outlook features for people with advanced email and calendar needs. An Office 365 subscription offers an ad-free interface, custom domains, enhanced security options, the full desktop version of Office, and 1 TB of cloud storage.
- As an illustration, you can contrast Gmail and Microsoft Outlook for their functions and overall scores, in this case, 8.3 and 8.3, respectively. Furthermore, you can compare which software has superior general user satisfaction rating: 98% (Gmail) and 77% (Microsoft Outlook) to learn which one is the better option for your company.
Sep 13, 2013 Microsoft wisely replaced Entourage with Outlook. With Outlook for Mac 2011’s release, I was hopeful that a new standard was in hand. But I’ve been disappointed. Outlook takes longer to open (my scientifically invalid, non-double-blind testing shows Outlook requires 23 seconds to open. Nov 05, 2019 Microsoft has revealed its plans to bring a new design to its Outlook for Mac app along with several performance improvements (via The Verge). Account syncing optimizations are promised as.
The experience was pleasantly positive but don’t take my word for it just yet. Read the below analysis to learn more about how Outlook is a better mailing app.
Let’s begin.
1. User Interface
When you open Apple Mail, you will be asked to enter email ID details with options for some popular providers.
Outlook automatically detected my email ID as I am using other Microsoft apps on my iPhone. You can also add email IDs from other providers, including IMAP and POP in Outlook.
Outlook has some additional options at the bottom — Search and Calendar, that we will explore in detail later.
Both the apps will ask for certain permissions to function correctly. The layout is simple and intuitive enough with everything easily accessible on both apps.
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Read More2. Reading Mails
Apple Mail comes with a bunch of mailboxes pre-configured like Drafts, Sent, and VIP among others. Contacts added as VIP will be given priority. That means you have the option to receive mail notifications for these contacts only. A time saver as you don’t have to pick up the phone every time you receive a newsletter.
To add a contact as VIP, open his/her mail and tap on the email header to mark as VIP. At the bottom, you will see regular options like reply, delete, write, flag, and move.
You can swipe right to mark the email as unread and swipe left to delete, flag, or respond to it. While you can change swipe settings by heading to Settings>Mail instead of from the Mail app directly.
Outlook also supports swipe gestures but offer more options while configuring it like schedule, read & archive, move, and more.
Outlook app has all the folders in the sidebar which you can open with a simple right swipe. There is also a Focused mailbox where important mails will land. You can manually decide which mails land there as well, and the app will learn from your behavior. All remaining mails are available under Other tab. No need to go back and forth.
Clicking on the three-dot menu icon will reveal options like delete, reply, and more. At the bottom, you will again find Search and Calendar options. They seem to be universally present.
Tapping on the three-dot menu at the top will reveal different options. You can use the Schedule button to remind you of important mails at a later date and time. It is useful when you receive a vital mail but don’t have the time to deal with it. Also valuable if the same mail has an event associated with it.
The reading experience remains more or less the same on both Apple Mail and Outlook app for iOS. However, I liked the Focused mailbox more because I don’t have to mark contacts VIP manually. Schedule option is a real lifesaver for it turns mails into a to-do list.
3. Sorting Mails
Apple Mail comes with a bunch of mailboxes as we saw earlier, but there are more hidden beneath the menu. Tap on Edit to reveal more mailboxes. Some of them are pretty useful.
Mailboxes like Attachments and Unread or Today can be very handy. Makes it easier to sort mails depending on what you are looking for. Outlook app by Microsoft removes the guesswork out of the equation by offering a Filter button. Tap on it to sort emails by attachments or Unread. There is a handy option called Mentions Me. What’s that?
It works just like in any other app. If the mail has you mention by name, you will find it here. Just another filter but more useful when you are working in a team.
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Read More4. Calendar
Both Apple Mail and Outlook are smart enough to recognize calendar events in the mail and offer to save it. In Apple Mail, you can tap on the time or date link to open a new menu. That’s where you can create or copy an event or view it in the calendar.
Where Apple offers a separate Calendar app, Outlook comes with one built-in. You can access it from the bottom bar menu, which is present on every screen. Following Apple’s design policy, you will tap on the date or time to open a menu to create events.
The difference here is that Outlook also works on other platforms like Windows and Android, whereas Apple Mail and Calendar apps are restricted to the Apple ecosystem.
Then there is the search tab where you can quickly search for mails by contact names, events, and even file names. Makes life that much easier.
5. Platform and Pricing
As mentioned in the point above, Apple Mail, or any other Apple App for that matter, doesn’t work on Windows and Android. Outlook is available on all popular desktop and mobile operating systems.
The iCloud offers 5GB free storage while Outlook offers 15GB of free storage which is three times more. That’s on par with what Google offers to Gmail or Drive users. Note that Office 365 users get 50GB storage. The iCloud storage plans begin at $0.99 for 50GB and go up to $9.99 for 2TB.
Outlook or OneDrive storage plans begin at $69.99 per year for 1TB, but you also get access to Office 365 suite of apps like OneDrive, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, among others.
Outlook Determines Outcome
Cross-platform compatibility is a must in this day and age, even for die-hard Apple fans. It might save the day one day. Plus, Outlook is easier to use with all the options and settings easily accessible from a single app. The calendar is baked into the app, which makes it more usable. And enterprise users will definitely want to benefit from Microsoft’s robust suite of exchange apps, which means it’s scalable.
For personal users, Apple Mail is a solid option, but Outlook is more flexible. Both are equally reliable.
Next up: Have you heard of Spark mail? Click on the link below to know how Outlook mail app for iOS fares against Spark mail app.
Read NextMicrosoft Outlook vs Spark: Which Is the Best Email App for iOSAlso See#email #productivityDid You Know
In 1981, the crew of STS-43 Atlantis sent the first e-mail from space.
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With the growing popularity of Slack, Microsoft Teams, and other similar services, many callously called for the death of email. However, reports stating otherwise. While desktop still plays a major role in email management, most consumers prefer accessing email accounts on mobiles.
Google just waved goodbye to the Inbox email app. Meanwhile, Apple’s Mail app is yet to grace us with a significant overhaul due to the slow pace of development. While Apple keeps refreshing the interface and looks of the iOS in general but an essential app for emails continues to appear dated — beats me too (no pun intended)!
Thankfully, a couple of alternatives come to the rescue. And the top two nominees for iOS are Outlook and Spark. As always, they support all popular email services like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and a few others.
Both are excellent email apps packing tons of features to stand out in the crowd. In this post, we will pit them against to see who wins the crown for the best email app for iOS.
App Size
Spark app weighs around 140MB while the Outlook iOS app is nearly double the size at 250MB. You will need to connect to Wi-Fi to download the app on the phone.
Download Spark for iOSDownload Outlook for iOSUser Interface
Outlook for iOS recently went through a major redesign, and the added changes reflect in the updated version. The animations are smooth and slick. Both Spark and Outlook follow Apple's interface guidelines, and that's apparent in the respective apps.
Outlook adopts a bottom menu bar UI with email, search, and calendar option. You can swipe on the left edge of the screen to access the hamburger menu. It’s a thoughtful design where all options are easily recognizable and available within reach.
Spark looks like an Android app but carries the iOS feel. There is a hamburger menu which the user can only slide from the upper left menu. The action button consists of the compose email button.
The other options like search and calendar are at the upper right corner and are hard to reach on larger screens. Thankfully, you can change that behavior from the settings menu.
Go to Settings > Personalization > Widgets > Choose Bottom. All options will appear on the bottom too.
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Read MoreOrganize Emails
The thing about email is, if you are not careful then your inbox may soon get filled with useless promotional messages, marketing templets, and newsletters. And in that process, you might miss a couple of important ones. And here is where organizing plays a major role in any email app.
By default, Outlook provides a ‘Focused Inbox’ option where the app decides to put relevant emails. The remaining emails appear in the other inbox. Of course, you can manually decide which sender's emails you want to see in the Focused Inbox.
Just tap on three buttons at the top, choose the Move to Focused Inbox, and tap on Move Always. After that, every email from that sender will land in the Focused Inbox.
Spark takes a more practical approach. It neatly classifies the emails with the relevant sections such as Personal, Notifications, Newsletters, Pins, and seen emails. I like this style more.
As always you can separately access the attachments from a different menu. On Outlook, tap on a filter and select Attachments. With Spark, you need to go to the hamburger menu to see the attachments.
Calendar
Both the apps offer a capable calendar service with tons of functionalities. In Outlook, you can add Facebook events, Evernote reminders and, even Wunderlist to-dos through the calendar apps in the settings menu. It’s useful for directly integrating your friend’s birthdays in the calendar.
Outlook also offers something called interesting calendars where one can add favorite TV shows, sport’s team or sports event’s schedule directly in the app.
It supports the majority of a popular sports league, and in the example below, you can see I have added Indian Cricket Team, and it shows the upcoming matches in the calendar.
Head to Setting > Interesting Calendars and choose your option from it.
Spark doesn’t provide such fancy features, and it sticks to the basic calendar functions where the user can add an event and set the time.
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Read MoreComposing an Email
Composing an email should be the most essential parameter of any email app. And here is where Spark shines with the several options it provides.
Microsoft Messenger for Mac is available for download as freeware with no paid upgrades necessary. In addition to the fast download, the installer was well designed, getting the program loaded. Download messenger for mac. Oct 26, 2010 Microsoft Messenger is the Mac version of Microsoft's popular instant messenger client that lets you chat interchangeably between your Hotmail and Yahoo contacts. Use Microsoft Messenger to keep in touch with family, friends, and acquaintances, as well as.
Of course, one can add images, files, documents, etc., but it can also let you make a group, and every member can join the group conversation.
Not only that, but you can also schedule the email to send at your preferred time, and Spark also reminds you if you haven’t replied to an urgent email.
Though Outlook supports the basic functions, it lacks the support for Apple’s Files app. One can’t add a document from Apple’s file manager. With Spark, you can act with ease.
Third-Party Integration
As you may have noticed above, Outlook gives better support for the calendar app. And for the email, the story turns upside down.
By default, Spark supports all the major cloud apps, note-taking apps such as OneNote, Evernote, and the to-do services as in Things 3, Todoist, Wunderlist, etc. Just go to Settings > Connect to Service and choose the appropriate option.
When enabled, you can directly send an email to your preferred notes app or add a to-do in a reminders app.
Outlook supports cloud apps, by which you can add files, photos or documents from OneDrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox. It also has integration for other services like Evernote, GIPHY, etc. but the choices are better on Spark.
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#comparison
Click here to see our comparison articles pageCustomization
Once again Spark gives more options out of the box. It lets you change the background color, sidebar options, widget positions, and email signature. The default long press or 3D touch function also reveals more information than Outlook does. Check the example below.
Outlook only lets you change the swipe options from the settings menu. Microsoft has promised dark theme support with an upcoming update.
Privacy Option and Price
Both the apps support Touch ID/Face ID options by default. You can enable them by going in Settings > Security.
As far as price is concerned, Outlook and Spark don’t charge a dime to use their services.
Which Email App Should You Use?
After using both the apps, my vote goes to Spark. It nails the basics like composing an email and offers more customizations (yay, dark theme) out of the box. Outlook wins in email organization and richer calendar functionality.
Microsoft Outlook Vs Mac Mail 2016
Next Up: Accidentally deleted an important email in Gmail? Fortunately, you can easily recover it. Read the post below on how to reverse the action.
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#productivityDid You Know
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