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Microsoft’s Outlook/Hotmail app for Android has never been the prettiest sight to behold. Even back before we had Holo its user interface was quite ugly, and although most users only cared for functionality at the end of the day, there were quite a few more who would rather put up with third party clients. The app has finally gotten a major user interface overhaul, though, as the latest update introduces a less ugly experience.
I stress “less ugly” because Microsoft tried to combine its Windows Phone-esque interface with Holo elements, creating a mashup of worlds that just doesn’t feel quite right. I’m probably being a bit too harsh — I’d use it as is — but it would be a lot better if Microsoft could make its mind up about what it wants its Android apps to be.
For comparison’s sake, the Xbox SmartGlass app and Bing don’t do anything to incorporate Holo, instead opting for user interfaces that feel a bit out of place on Android. Microsoft probably feels like the Outlook.com client’s hybrid nature is a good compromise, but it only makes me mad to see what the app could be if Microsoft would stop being stubborn and decide to go full-on Holo.
I wouldn’t bank on that happening, though, as the company likely wants to maintain a degree of uniformity no matter which platform its apps are on. That said, anything is better than the old app so you might as well download it in the Google Play Store and be happy that Microsoft has finally gotten around to bringing the Outlook.com app into the 21st century.
[via Microsoft]
At least MS is trying. No other competitor would even bother really other than google to put something onto a competing os
MS hv bin in biz 4 how long?
That is dam ugly
“That is an ugly dam,” or “That dam is ugly?” Either way I don’t think you’re actually talking about a damn dam, rather, you just don’t know which one to use…
You dam rite! He dont no noffin bout spellin or gramma! You learned his ass gud!!
Go home er and read ur Britannica!
Spelling police still exists after so many years internet has been introduced!?
How you get a life instead of worrying about others grammar and spelling loser.
A crappy UI for a crappy service. Most people I know who do use Hotmail switched to K9Mail and IMAP long ago…
Outlook.com is quite awesome… troll on, fanboy
needs access to “info anytime”?
I can stand across the room and see who the email is from now, the font is quite large and no setting to reduce.
About time… I agree, this is a lot better than the old app. Hopefully MS tweaks it again for aesthetics.
looks like crap to me.
At least they improved from the Froyo look in the last version.
Looks better and definitely refined, push actually works but damn, let me change the font size!!..what the heck, fonts are so big, no glasses needed I guess !..uninstalled, sticking with stock Nexus 4 email app for now..pretty nice
It doesn’t really look that bad, what’s the deal? I’ve seen a lot worse by other developers.
I use Touchdown. Works great.
Touch down works great but looks like crap. I really like the new outlook.com app but I am a W8/WP8 fan…as well as an android fan.
They recently updated TD with a bit more modern controls. But pretty is as pretty does.
I don’t mind this hybrid look, at least it’s an improvement. As for the font, it doesn’tt appear to be that big in my opinion.. I’ll post a screenshot.
Edit: http://imageshack.us/a/img585/696/20130417123902.jpg
so, out of curiousity, what is that notification icon in your status bar? i don’t recognise it.
It’s the Battery Guru icon :)
For people who use both Outlook.com and Gmail, a better way is to configure Gmail to act as a POP3 / SMTP client for Outlook. This way, you only need Gmail app.
totally agree……what really irks is that this outlook app only syncs 30 days of mail
exactly what I do!
Or for that matter dump the gmail app and run all 8 of your accounts thru the built-in Android email client, works fine for me.
Here’s the thing, I already get all my MS email pushed to my smartphone via the stock email app that came on my Razr HD. So why would I want this more? What does it offer that I don’t already get? Quite frankly I don’t need yet another app just taking up space. I might try it out but I doubt I’ll really find it more useful that the Motorola email or the gmail apps I already use.
Functionality is still no better, but I guess that is, at least in part, WP8/W8 legacy. Still no select all option anywhere; the mark (un)read option got moved into the menu, even though at least those showed up as buttons when you selected an email or two; still no archive option, even though the web interface has had it for quite a while now; syncing is still botched: mark read and archive emails on the web – your Archive folder (which doesn’t even sync at all by default) will show those emails as new until you open them in the app itself… So, idk about others, but I’d be much happier with an actual feature update / batch of bugfixes.
And it doesn’t sync properly…
Style and font is so f*cked up!
sorry….I disagree, old look was much better, especially for a compact size like a 3.5 inch screen…new upgrade looks crap.
This is a much better look.
Wtf is wrong with these company ‘s they appear 2 b asleep
Grammer on the internet plez,r u kidin me,thats the concept no ‘!,? Etc. Unles ur a english teacher and it bugs u do u text? Read it and weep.
Old dude
Spel chk shoud b abolishd u mak up ass u go unles u need monstr! Get a lif!
Omg! Wtf! Lol! Or wth!
The old Hotmail app (which sadly no longer works) looked FAR better. This totally has a Windows 8 UI look and I don’t care for it at all. Looks like it’s time to use google’s built in e-mail app instead.