At the beginning of July, Microsoft announced the preparation of an application called “Outlook Lite”, a smaller and faster version of the email client for entry-level Android devices. Its deployment began on 1er August in a number of countries. The app is available for free download from the Google Play Store.
“Outlook Lite offers the core features of Microsoft Outlook in a small application that delivers fast performance for lightweight devices on any network,” including 2G and 3G networks, Microsoft reaffirmed this week.
The app includes access to email, calendar, and contacts, and its download size is around 5MB. It’s optimized to run fast on all Android devices, including those as low as 1GB of RAM, and it is supposed to consume less battery than the traditional Outlook application. Outlook Lite currently supports Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live, MSN, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Exchange Online accounts.
Not in France for the moment
Microsoft plans to add support for third-party accounts and multiple accounts “in the future.” Outlook Lite does not support Android Work Profile and Mobile Application Management (MAM) for business accounts. Therefore, Microsoft recommends that business users who require these features continue to use the existing Outlook mobile client for Android rather than the Lite version.
Since 1er August, the app is only available in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Mexico, Peru, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, in Turkey and Venezuela. However, Microsoft plans to expand its deployment to other countries in the future.
Some observers have pointed out that an Outlook Lite application already exists in a number of countries. Is the app coming out this week just an update to something that already exists? I asked Microsoft the question, but haven’t gotten an answer yet.
Source: ZDNet.com