Microsoft Outlook App Now Available For All Android Users

As of today, Microsoft is removing the "preview" status of its Outlook app for the Android mobile operating system. This means that owners of smartphones and tablets that run on Android can now be able to install the email messaging app to their mobile devices. 

Back in the later part of the month of January this year, Microsoft unveiled its preview version of the Outlook app for the Android platform. This marked the first time that the tech company is developing a version of Outlook for Android users. Much like the Outlook app that Microsoft released for the iOS platform, the Outlook app for Android is essentially the Acompli product being rebranded Microsoft. Some may remember that Microsoft acquired the mobile email startup company, Acompli, back in December of 2014.

After introducing the preview version of the Outlook app for Android, Microsoft has been updating the Android app's code base more than a dozen times, with new updates happening more than once a week. The updates consist of changes to the user interface, and also includes enhancements in terms of performance, system stability, localization, and ease of access. The new and improved Outlook app for Android now supports Office 365, Exchange, Outlook.com, iCloud, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and even Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) providers such as AOL.com and Comcast.net.

Ultimately, Microsoft is aiming to replace the Outlook Web Apps for iOS and Android, plus the Outlook.com app for Android, with the company's new Outlook apps. That is definitely easier said than done. It is likely that the Outlook Web Apps and Outlook.com app will still be available in the respective app stores for the next few months. However, the company is targeting to gradually phase out Outlook Web Apps and the Outlook.com app for iOS and Android starting this summer. 

The new Outlook mail and calendar apps for Windows Phones (in preview status as of now) are intended to have a similar design and feel to the Outlook for Android and iOS apps, despite the fact that the Windows Phone versions are patterned on the Acompli code base. 

The Outlook app for the Android platform is available as a free download, and is compatible with Android 4.0 and newer versions. It is made available to all markets that are supported by the Google Play Store. Its user interface has been optimized for 30 languages, including English, Catalan, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovakian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.