Last month, Microsoft announced its plans to replace the Mail and Calendar apps in Windows with the new Outlook. After a brief pause for reevaluation, Microsoft has decided to move forward with this change. According to a July 20 update, support for the Mail and Calendar apps for Windows will end at the end of 2024. The new Outlook for Windows offers enhanced productivity features such as Microsoft Loop, message reminders, file and people suggestions while composing an email, drag and drop emails as tasks, work hours and location, pinning and snoozing messages, and more.

It’s not surprising that this change has received some controversy, especially with the underwhelming performance of the Windows Mail app. However, Microsoft intends to proceed with its plans despite the negative feedback. The timing of the transition has been adjusted, and now the auto-migration of Mail and Calendar users to the new Outlook will begin in late August 2024. Users will have the temporary option to revert back to the previous apps.

Unfortunately, Microsoft will not allow users to continue using Mail and Calendar indefinitely. Support for these apps will end in late 2024, and users will be required to migrate to the new Outlook for Windows or choose alternative mail/calendar clients of their preference.