Credit: Tero Alhonen
Microsoft is working on a single version of Outlook that will replace its current Windows 10 email and calendar applications, as well as its legacy Outlook Win 32 client with a single Outlook client for Windows and Mac. The new email / calendar client , codenamed “Project Monarch”, according to Windows Central, is part of the company’s “One Outlook” plan and will be derived from the current Outlook Web application.
Currently, you can view the Microsoft One Outlook dashboard website by visiting aka.ms/monarch. (See the embedded screenshot, courtesy of @TeroAlhonen.)
“One Outlook (or ‘Monarch’) is the new version of Outlook designed for large screen experiences. This includes Windows Desktop (win32 and UWP; Intel and ARM), Outlook Web Access (OWA) and macOS Desktop,” according to a description in the One Outlook Dashboard. (Thanks, @WinObs.)
In the days of Windows 8, Microsoft employees insisted that the integrated Mail and Calendar applications, which are less functional than Outlook, represented the future of mail at Microsoft. (At one point, rumors arose that Microsoft was considering renaming the Mail and Calendar application package “Outlook”, which would make the messy situation even worse with many different products, all called “Outlook”.)
Since Microsoft moved away from Windows 8 and its original Universal Windows Platform (UWP) strategy, the company has started adding new features to Outlook for the Web. So far, however, it has continued to maintain email applications. and existing calendar for some reason, instead of making all of your Outlook-based email applications.
Microsoft currently has different versions of Outlook for Windows, Mac, Web, iOS and Android devices (based on the Acompli technology it acquired), all of which its employees tend to refer to as the old “Outlook”.
Windows Central reports that users can see a preview of the new ‘One Outlook’ client until the end of 2021, but that it will not replace the Mail and Calendar applications integrated in Windows 10 until sometime in 2022. WC also says A Microsoft’s intention to replace the legacy Outlook Win32 client “much further.”
I asked Microsoft for a comment on the One Outlook / Monarch reports. No word back yet. Update: A spokesman said the company “has nothing to share”. (First “nothing to share” in the new year. Now it looks like we’re really back to work!)