Microsoft Rebrands Hotmail As Outlook.com, Adds New Features

It has often been stated that the days of Hotmail are nearly over. Most professionals have a rather low opinion of Microsoft’s email service, and they have fair reasons to do so. However, all this is about to change. Microsoft is rebranding Hotmail as ‘Outlook’, which will be a new email service packing awesome features and having a Metro-style interface.


Outlook.com

If you are a Hotmail user, you can upgrade to the preview right away. You will be provided with options to change your email to @outlook.com. New users who go to Outlook.com can simply sign up for a new account.

With Outlook.com, Microsoft has draped its email service in the same Metro style that is inspiring nearly all its interfaces these days. It indeed looks ‘modern’ and clean, and packs cloud connectivity for accounts and data. Threaded messaging is available by default, where it also carries support for Skype video web calling.

According to the company, “We think that email can do a lot better than webmail. We decided it was time for a change.” Given below is a brief recap of the new features in Outlook.com.

Better looks
The regular Hotmail interface had really started to grow on the nerves of the users. It was heavy, lagging; contained a lot of ads and took a lot of time to load. In comparison, the new interface on Outlook is lot more clean, fresh and very easy-to-use.

Outlook interface

The default interface of the Outlook comprises of three columns. The email is, as usual, in the middle column, whereas folders and search are on the left column and finally the new command bar rests on the right-hand column.

The right-hand command bar is very significant for the design. It can display information related to your activity on emails; for instance displaying contact information from Facebook and will also be the place where Microsoft displays its ads.

Contacts Management
Contacts management hasn’t exactly been a forte’ in Hotmail. But with Outlook, Microsoft has immensely improved it. It can now import contacts from your social media profiles as well as from your other email clients and then merge them to present single contact cards. You can also add pictures to the contacts, thus making their management even easier.

Outlook contacts

Support for mobile platform
One of the major reasons why Microsoft has upgraded Hotmail to Outlook is probably because the company also plans to keep its mail client relevant in the mobile sphere. And that is why, Outlook comes with a lot of features which are very aptly suited to mobile devices. In fact, some animations on Outlook play far better on a tablet than on a PC.

In all, Outlook is a huge step forth for Hotmail and Hotmail has suddenly grown a lot better with its new looks and features. You may want to check it out here: www.Outlook.com

Source: Outlook

Courtesy: The Verge
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Salman

Salman Latif is a software engineer with a specific interest in social media, big data and real-world solutions using the two.Other than that, he is a bit of a gypsy. He also writes in his own blog. You can find him on Google+ and Twitter .

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