14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has announced a new update aimed at Office Insider users for Outlook 2016 for Mac, which includes better support for Google services, including Gmail, Contacts, and Calendar.
First and foremost, Microsoft is adding support for both Google Contacts and Google Calendar in the email client, so starting with this version, users can edit information straight from the app. You can thus create new events, appointments, or edit contacts from Outlook and then have all the information synchronized with all the other clients regardless of the platform.
“Outlook for Mac has long supported connecting to and managing your Gmail. With these updates, Outlook will now also sync your Google calendars and contacts. The experience will be very similar to what you are familiar with in Outlook today, with support for all the core actions,” Microsoft explains.
Focused Inbox with Gmail support
Then, starting with this update, Microsoft is bringing its highly-praised Focused Inbox on Mac systems with support for Gmail. Focused Inbox is a feature that automatically sorts the emails that are important to you and highlights them in a different folder, keeping the inbox clean from things like newsletters, spam, and messages that aren’t considered a priority.
Focused Inbox is also being rolled out to Windows users as we speak, and Mac systems should get it when the testing stage is complete.
Microsoft says that in the case of Mac users, not everyone will get the updated Gmail experience from the very beginning, and the firm explains that it’s all being gradually rolled out based on feedback received from testers. A notification will be displayed when it becomes available, though, so you’ll know when it’s there.
“We are still fine-tuning the Google account experience in Outlook for Mac and will provide regular updates to Insiders before releasing the features more broadly,” the firm says.
Keep in mind that these features are only available as part of the Office Insider program for the time being, but they will be rolled out to users in the coming weeks when testing ends.