Microsoft has expanded some Outlook features, including Play My Emails and Meeting Insights, to new platforms, while tweaking old conveniences like calendar sharing.
Microsoft has followed up its deluge of new Microsoft Teams features a week ago with a number of new additions to Microsoft Outlook. Announced Tuesday, they include a one-touch join feature for Zoom—yes, Zoom—plus Outlook’s “Play my Emails” feature for Android.
Unfortunately, Microsoft’s process for rolling out new features tends to follow an “announce, preview, ship” timeline, with some capabilities restricted to particular platforms. Some of the last major announced updates to Outlook occurred during Microsoft’s Ignite conference, a lifetime ago last November.
Microsoft’s updated “Play My Emails” fits nicely into this niche. Originally launched for iOS last year, Play My Emails offers a hands-free way to check email and transform them to to-do tasks using your voice. (Think of it as email, as voice mail.) According to Microsoft, it “intelligently reads out your email and shares changes to your day— ideal for commuting or multitasking—helping you get time back so you can focus on other things.” It’s now available for the Outlook app on Android, too.
Play My Emails is triggered from the bottom of Outlook’s list of emails in iOS. Presumably it will work the same within Android.
Meeting Insights falls into the same category. Microsoft announced it as a feature for Outlook for the Web and iOS last November, but it’s newly available for Android today. Designed to do some of the heavy lifting for your homework, it collects all of the relevant email and associated documents in one place, in anticipation of what you’ll need during your upcoming meeting.
