Microsoft is postponing its plan to more aggressively push the new Outlook to business customers by one year, until March 2027.
Microsoft is postponing its Outlook opt-out deadline by one year. This was revealed in a message in the admin portal. Redmond had planned to start marketing the new Outlook more aggressively to business customers starting next month. While Enterprise customers currently still need to actively opt in to the new application, Microsoft intended to switch to an opt-out model starting in April. The new Outlook will then become the default, unless administrators implement policies that prioritize the classic version.
Procrastination, not procrastination
The move is still on the roadmap, but not until March 2027. This gives administrators a year of respite to prepare for either a migration or to set up correct opt-out rules to keep the new Outlook at bay for a while longer.
Subsequent restrictions on the use of the classic version also remain on the schedule. For instance, anyone trying out the new Outlook today can still switch back to the classic version. In the future, Microsoft intends to make the transition permanent. Microsoft will notify administrators at least one year before this rule goes into effect.
To reassure businesses, the classic Outlook will continue to be supported for some time. Organizations can keep using the familiar version until at least 2029.
A less functional app
Microsoft still intends to transition all users worldwide to the new version of the mail app. From a user perspective, the new Outlook doesn’t really have a reason to exist. Microsoft is primarily developing the application to streamline the underlying code and unify it across various devices. This provides advantages for Microsoft, but not necessarily for end users.
Because the underlying code is being completely overhauled, the new Outlook is not an evolution of the classic application. Microsoft built a new app and has been trying to convince organizations for several years that it is superior to the familiar version. In practice, the new Outlook still lacks many features that are present in the classic version. An overview from Microsoft itself shows how New Outlook is still not an equivalent solution to Classic Outlook in many respects.