We’ve put together the best and biggest list of Outlook mobile app tips. Except where noted, these tips apply to both iOS and Android devices.
1. Find Files, Trip Details, Contacts And More
Powered by Microsoft Graph, selecting the Search magnifying glass immediately loads your most recent documents, favorite contacts, trip itineraries, and even package delivery tracking. Many of the search criteria used by desktop Outlook also work in the Outlook phone app.
2. Filter Emails In the Outlook App
People love to keep emails, even if they know they’ll never use them again. That’s okay, because you can filter them.
3. Sync Phone Contacts With the Outlook App
By default, your phone contacts aren’t synced with the Outlook app. If sync ever doesn’t work, go back into Settings, scroll to the bottom, and select RESET ACCOUNT.
4. Manage Notifications By Account
Got more than one account using your Outlook phone app? You can control the notifications from each.
5. Listen to Emails In the Outlook App
Great for the multi-tasker, Play My Emails is a powerful feature of Outlook. It uses Cortana’s artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to do more than just read emails. Cortana will check Outlook and let you know about meeting changes or conflicts. It can give email details, like who else received the email, if it’s a long or short email, and how long the email is to read. The Play My Emails for iOS is available in Canada, the US, United Kingdom, Australia, and India. For Android, it’s only available in the US. Expect it to come to you eventually.
6. Turn Focused Inbox Off or On
The focused inbox is something you either love or hate. There’s no in-between, it seems.
7. Turn Organize By Thread Off or On
Just like the Focused Inbox, organizing emails by conversation thread is a divisive topic.
8. Set or Change Swipe Options
With just a flick of the finger, you can tell an email where to go. The first time you swipe an email, Outlook will step you through your options. If you change your mind, you can also change your swipe.
9. Sort Contacts by First or Last Name
10. Set an Automatic Reply
11. Customize Favorites Folders
Got a lot of folders? You can set your favorites so they’re the first folders you see. Now your favorite folders are at the top of the list.
12. Change Outlook App To Dark or Light Theme
13. Add Other Fun Calendars to the Outlook App
You probably knew you could add other peoples’ calendars to yours, but did you know you can add sports, tv, and other apps’ calendars?
14. Use Add-ins from Other Services in Outlook App
Integration is part of why Outlook is so popular. You can use add-ins from popular services like GoToMeeting, Box, Slack for Outlook, Trello, and many more.
15. Change Calendar View In Outlook App
The calendar defaults to an entire month view. That’s a lot of information packed on a small screen. You can change that. This only works in portrait mode.
16. Set Do Not Disturb In Outlook App
Outlook is about getting things done. Yet it can also be a distraction, so learn how to use its Do Not Disturb features.
17. Use Message Actions In The Outlook App
You knew you could use actions in single-message view, but did you know you can use actions from the Inbox view? Report junk tells Microsoft the e-mail is garbage and their spam AI will learn to block spam messages.
18. See Items from Your Favorite Contacts First
Everyone is important, yet some people are just a little more important in your life. Here’s how you can make sure you see their emails first.
19. Use Samsung DeX With the Outlook App
This only applies to some of the newer Samsung Android devices. The Outlook app is optimized for use with Samsung Dex. DeX allows you to connect to an HDMI or Miracast-enabled monitor and pair a keyboard and mouse for a desktop-style experience.
What Else Can You Do In the Outlook App?
We believe this is the best and biggest list of Outlook app tips for Android and iOS devices. Still, if you know of more, we’d love to hear about them in the comments below.