Although we live in a connected world, the way we use our apps often feels distinctly disconnected. We use one app to browse the web, another to manage our email, a third for music, and so on. Whether at home or at work, multitasking across multiple apps has become the new standard.
While each app can be a finely tuned experience on its own, using them together is usually anything but; Unless you’re an expert at app windowing, multitasking between apps means you’ll have to frustrate switching back and forth. And at Microsoft, we’re always looking for ways to help you stay in your flow online, so you can multitask smarter and with fewer interruptions.
Microsoft 365 Personal or Family
Everything you need to achieve more in less time.
Today we’re announcing a new way to help you stay focused using two Microsoft apps that many people use together on a daily and consistent basis — the classic Microsoft Outlook app on Windows and the Microsoft Edge web browser. Coming soon, customers with a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription will be able to open browser links from the Outlook app in Microsoft Edge right next to the email they came from in the Edge sidebar area for easy access, reading, and reply to the message with your matching authenticated profile. No hassle switching – just your email and the web content you need to link to in a single, side-by-side view. At this time, users or devices in managed environments will not see this change. And in the future, links from your Microsoft Teams messages will also open in Microsoft Edge so you can join conversations while browsing the web.
Stay in your flow with Microsoft Outlook on Windows and Microsoft Edge
Why are we making this change? To improve the user experience between email and browsing by allowing you to see both at the same time in the same place – no more switching back and forth between apps.
Take dinner plans with friends, for example. A friend emails you with options for different restaurants and reservation times. Instead of having to switch back and forth between the message and the browser, links from your Outlook emails open in Microsoft Edge along with the original email message in the browser sidebar area. This way you can check the restaurants in your browser tab and reply to your friend with your restaurant choices, all in the same window.
Microsoft 365 Apps
Boost productivity with Microsoft Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and more – all in one place.
And we’re constantly optimizing the sidebar in Edge to give you useful content and tools as you browse, so you don’t have to switch back and forth between windows or even other tabs—whether you’re shopping online or working in a Microsoft 365 web app .
At Microsoft, our goal is to empower you to make the most of your time. We do this through experiences like these, but we’re also committed to respecting and prioritizing your preferences if that experience isn’t right for you. When you first launch into Edge, you have the option to choose your preferred browser for opening links from Outlook. We’re also making it easy to change this setting in Outlook at any time. In Outlook, go to File, Options, Advanced, Link Management and select the browser you want from the drop-down menu. Do you want to change the setting? Learn more about how to manage your experience.
looking ahead
We are committed to empowering every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. Much of this is done using Microsoft 365 Apps and a web browser, which is why Edge is the first browser optimized to work with Microsoft 365 Apps, and we welcome the ability to work with other browsers to give users this experience. Also, this Outlook experience is just the beginning. Next, we want to bring that experience to Teams so you can see your chat and a link side by side in the same way. Of course we will continue to listen to your feedback; If we learn from user experience that there are opportunities to make improvements, we will do so. Stay tuned for more innovation as we find new and better ways to optimize the web for Microsoft 365 Apps and more, so we can work smarter, not harder, together.
