Microsoft Outlook Ratings and Reviews

I’d give it an 4.5 if I could, but it’s not a four. I’d like it if it was easier to figure out at first how to access other folders such as trash and drafts—or maybe I’m just slow. I like how you can change what the slide function has—I have it set to delete which is super helpful and I wish the apple mail app had. I use both apps with Microsoft OutLook for my school email. I also like the computer version as well. Both versions of the app can (and do) remind me of events I have in my Microsoft calendar (I forget their name, if it has one). This is really helpful as my high school is using teams during the whole pandemic-so I get reminded before school starts, towards the end of classes I dislike, and before lunch ends that I have class which is really helpful. I’ll also mention that you can turn this off—for one or all events—and change the amount of time beforehand that it reminds you at (15 or 5 minutes beforehand for example). I still will use google as my main email because I already am—it isn’t better enough in the ways it is to change. I don’t think it is worse per say that google/apple email apps/websites. Hope this helps!

In looking through other reviews, I noticed several, many, reviews that stated how bad the product was but that showed 5 star ratings. ????? It is frustrating to sit and wait several seconds to have my inbox loaded each time I select outlook on iOS. I have reviewed settings and see no correction for that. Am I downloading messages online each time data wise? When moving a message from inbox, it would be nice to have predictive folders shown as on the desktop. I have three major folders that get a lot of messages and it is a frustration to scroll all over each time. My spouse uses Apple Calendar on her phone and we have trouble she invites me on an appointment. I have tried to clear that up but can’t. I would prefer the calendar app to be separate from the email to use in separate windows. Handling and setting up groups for emails is frustrating on all platforms. As I am now retired, I have no great operational demands that Mail can’t handle so I might just go back to that. Dropping MS Office would certainly save some money. The app is not “Bad”, just adequate. Certainly, it is no joy to use but does not cause too much pain-except for that one group of about ten days of email that was lost. Never found those suckers. 🚀

Update: 9/13
Still simply adequate. I have approached my host to find out if I can move all mail from outlook to Mail.

I was recently forced to switch over to the Outlook app from the native Apple Mail app by my office. Couldn’t be more disappointed. First, despite the fact that everything is set up to push new data, I will regularly open the app to watch a dozen or so new emails load right before my eyes. No notifications, no indication that I received new emails, nothing. And sometimes this can be a dozen or more emails at a time and from a half hour ago or more. Very frustrating. Then there’s the issue of the default email font, which is basically the most unpleasant looking and unprofessional font that could have been chosen, that cannot be changed. Next we have the calendar, which is the least intuitive layout I can imagine. I can never tell when I have things scheduled for any particular day, because it’s just a garbled mess. The layout in Apple’s Calendar app is much, much, much better. And adding items to the calendar is equally frustrating. Adding attachments to emails is always a fun little adventure, as you never know where or how it’s going to add them to the email. The whole point of being able to access email on your phone is that it’s supposed to be quick and convenient, and this app if far from either of those things. Honestly, I’m not even sure it’s worth improving this app, it would probably be better to scrap it and start all over. Save some time in the process and just copy Apple’s apps.

I’m generally a fan of MFST & their products, but the update to mobile Outlook this past week is absolutely horrible. What I don’t like (so far): 1) Email sync with my personal Gmail is delayed, sometimes by hours. I’ve verified all Gmail settings (a second Gmail account seems to work fine), reset the account, removed the account and added it back, and removed/reinstalled the app completely. 2) Despite enabling the setting to open links in my browser by default, it still opens them in a pane within Outlook- where none of my autofill info works. 3) It seems like every time I turn around, it’s prompting me to install the mobile version of Edge. No… just, no. Edge is a dumpster fire on my desktop that requires having a backup browser for all the pages it breaks. I have zero desire to replicate that on my iPhone. The 2023 version was great and I especially appreciated being able to manage my calendar. The 2024 version is starting the year on the wrong foot, imo. Edit: Yesterday’s update fixed the issue with opening links in the default browser. Emails are still delayed by hours. Edit 2: Email sync was resolved after about 7-8 days of downtime. Updating review to 3 stars, may bump to 4 in future if it stays reliable for at least 6 months.

I have mostly used Gmail for a lot of things (my high school email, my undergrad email, etc.) and now as a grad student, I have to use my school outlook email to communicate with my professors. Overall, the app is very easy to use once you get the hang of it. However, one thing I missed as a Gmail user is being able to schedule an email to my professors on the app. I use my phone more than my laptop because I’m always on the move. I don’t want to write an email on my phone only to have to turn on my laptop just to schedule the email. I also wished for the feature of being able to label the priority level of my email to be applicable in the app as well. I thought that was a cool feature that outlook had that Gmail didn’t only to be disappointed that the app didn’t have it. Another thing that worries me is that getting notifications from the app is a hit or miss for me. I didn’t have to send an email for a month and when I opened the app to write one, turns out I have 6 unread emails waiting for me. Thank god it wasn’t anything serious but I’m hoping this gets fixed soon. I would rather not have this happening to me when during my semester.

It seems that Outlook routinely "forgets" your mail accounts, even when using Microsoft's own Exchange-based accounts (Outlook, Hotmail). Why is this? Why does Outlook have to refresh all of your mail locally almost every time you open it? There will even be a numerical badge indicating unread messages, but when you open Outlook, you will be notified that Outlook has "found" accounts on your system (accounts that you have, of course, already added to Outlook) and you will be prompted to add these accounts again. The standard Apple iOS Mail app actually seems to manage Microsoft's own mail accounts better than Microsoft's email app. How can this be? Is Apple doing sometime here to hobble non-Apple email apps (as they do with non-Apple mobile browsers) or has Microsoft not been able to figure out how to develop native iOS applications? I'm inclined to think it's the latter, because other non-Apple email apps do seem to be able to retain email account continuity. It's a shortcoming only for the Outlook email client. I keep trying to use Outlook as a mobile email client for my Microsoft email accounts and I always end up uninstalling it and reverting to the Apple app or some other third-part email app. It's a shame, really. Google's Mail app works pretty well for Gmail. Microsoft's Outlook app doesn't work well for Microsoft email. What's going on here?

The app has worked great since I got it last year, especially for school. But recently it’s stopped sending me notifications for some emails which has caused me to miss several emails and dead-lines. It’s too late for me at this point so please fix this issue. I don’t know if it’s because I had 2 inboxes from 2 different school emails or what, but this problem has caused me a lot of stress and I’d prefer it not happen in the future.

Edit: The issue that I believed was originally occurring is not the only one. It appears the reason I am not getting notifications for emails is because these emails aren’t appearing in my inbox until days later. For example, several emails I received on the 30th of July did not appear in my inbox until today. I did not get any notifications for any emails on that 30th. This is really frustrating because I’ve received emails from university faculty who have been sending and requesting information and it is really creating a huge hassle for me and causing more stress than is needed.

Maybe this is something I need to talk to my school about? If it is please let me know.

No features. Prohibitively slow. Obviously fake reviews trying to bury all the negative. Crude photo handling. Inexplicably crops photos for no reason. Halfasstic and inconsistent threading. Crosses messages from other accounts into folders. Improper handling of push notifications. No way to report Phishing, not that they do anything with reports on other Outlook platforms as you get the same messages over and over. No way to block by Sender Name, because the morons at Micro$oft still don’t realize the RANDOM spoofed Sender Addresses are unlikely to be duplicated, but they’ll reuse the same Sender Name! For obvious reason, the in-app Feedback submission button is DELIBERATELY DISABLED. UPDATE: proof Micro$oft is responsible for 99.9% of your new junk mail (and, no, it’s not the “sponsored” messages spamming up your regular message box. TRY deleting a junk message from micro$oft’s ad bot! It will reappear. If you clicked any singly or to start a selection, it reappears Marked As Read, so you know it’s the same message! Report and Delete DO NOT WORK ON THESE! Other messages will go, but any spam from Microsoft will return over and over until you drag them one at a time (no groups) to the trash… or use a 3rd party mail app to delete them. Also, Microsoft sponsored junk mail no longer transfers to the Outlook Deleted folder with other messages… probably because it’s not real and boomeranging back

I need one platform that I can use on my devices. I am a Windows user on my computers, servers, and other devices in my office environment as well as other companies office environments. Smart phones are slowly becoming an important device and Apple devices are leading the way for me and my users, especially my younger users. I would like to receive a text and quickly, easily add the sender to my Outlook contacts not my Apple contacts. Once added I would like to quickly search for that added contact on either device via Outlook, but cannot. I prefer the Microsoft 365 local environment, but making it work easily is complicated and very frustrating. I am aware Microsoft attempted to compete in the smartphone arena a few years ago but acknowledged Apple was the leader and gave up. Microsoft won the computer and computer OS battle for businesses decades ago, but Apple is still fighting. Can’t Microsoft continue to either battle for or work with Apple to provide us users with an organizer platform between Windows workstations and Apple smartphones that is easy to use and seamless to use as we work across both devices? Please…? Thanks. — Mark

This is the worst app that I have on my phone. Typically I don’t keep apps that I absolutely hate, but since I have no alternative to using this horrible thing, I haven’t removed it. This pathetic thing has caused problems for me professionally. It takes less time for me to boot up the computer and check my calendar and then it does for me to even make my calendar showing this out. Hoping out an email literally takes as long as it would to write a letter and put it in the mail. Smoke signals will be better than this app. I can’t even open my calendar to understand what kind of meetings I have for the day because this app loads every single calendar I have shared to me and freezes every time I click a button. This is horrible. Don’t know why Microsoft insists upon upgrading things to be absolutely terrible. Even more I can’t understand why the entire professional world forces everyone to use Outlook.
Gross. Even worse, it’s been out for a year already and you’ve done nothing to fix it, it’s gotten worse if anything.
I’d be fired if I was this bad at my job.