Microsoft’s starting to test a brand-new design for Outlook on Windows. The company first introduced the modern Outlook experience on the web, which is today coming to organizations as part of the new “Coming Soon” feature — a new opt-in toggle in Outlook that lets users within organizations get early access to the new Outlook experience on the web and Windows.

On Windows, a modern look for Outlook has been long overdue. With Office 2019 coming soon, Microsoft is giving a new look to Outlook, too. There’s a new, simplified ribbon that will be consistent across other Office apps. Microsoft has updated the iconography across Outlook to make the user-interface look much cleaner and modern. Outlook Calendar’s also getting a new look, with new intelligent highlights and visual changes that will apparently help you manage your time, events, and meetings much more effectively.

Microsoft already tested the majority of the new Outlook for Windows updates with Office Insiders, but the latest release is more focused at organizations using Office 365, especially with the new Coming Soon feature.

The cleaner user-interface does make look Outlook look a whole lot better, to be honest. The new iconography and the simplified ribbon looks really beautiful, and they also help users be more productive, according to Microsoft. The Outlook team discussed some of the subtle design changes here, so if you are interested to see how exactly things are changing, make sure to give it a quick read.  “The updates make reading, composing, and taking action in emails and meetings faster. A more responsive web development framework and a modern design lets you see, read and respond to emails and meeting invitations, and attach files quicker,” the Outlook team said.

Microsoft is going to start rolling out the upgraded Outlook for Windows experience to Office Insiders first (and organizations in Monthly Channel), while the new web experience is going to be available for organizations in Targeted Release starting today.

Tagged with Office 365, Outlook for Windows