There may truly be no escape from your emails now thanks to a new release from Microsoft.
First hinted at earlier this year, the company has now officially revealed a stripped-down version of its Outlook email service that it says can run smoothly on even the most basic of Android smartphones.
Available now, Outlook Lite offers all the key ingredients of the popular platform, but without the drain on battery life and system resources for those with low-end phones.
Outlook Lite
The Outlook Lite app comes in at just 5MB, and was designed to run on devices with as little as 1GB RAM and also perform well on older 2G and 3G networks found in many undeveloped countries.
Despite that, Microsoft says it has packed all the most important part of the service into Outlook Lite, whilst making sure the app runs smoothly and speedily for users everywhere.
“Outlook is used by millions of people daily for their email and calendaring needs across the world,” Microsoft senior product manager Pradeep Elavarasan wrote in a blog post (opens in new tab) announcing the launch. “Yet, there are a wide range of devices that do not have all the capabilities required to get the best Outlook experience on their smartphone.”
Elavarasan noted that the new service would be able to empower more individuals, schools, universities, and small businesses with an effective and efficient offering for their lightweight mobile devices.
Microsoft also notes that the new service will support Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live, MSN, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Exchange Online accounts – so won't work with Gmail just yet.
Outlook Lite will initially be available to users in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Mexico, Peru, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and Venezuela – with more countries possibly coming soon.
The launch comes as Microsoft also continues work on its future of the desktop Outlook service. Nicknamed One Outlook, the new release is aimed at business and education customers who subscribe to Microsoft 365 or Office 365.
Microsoft has added a number of updates and changes, including a new look and feel, message reminders, a single view for calendar, email, and to-do items, and the ability to more easily attach cloud files.
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