Microsoft updates Outlook for iOS and Android with a new address book and calendar improvements

Microsoft has updated its Outlook email apps for iOS and Android with a raft of new features, rounding out the address book, calendar and search functions.

The People section has evolved from displaying only your top contacts to a full-blown address book, offering a unified view of all your contacts from all your email accounts in the app, as well as those stored only on your device.

It now lets you search, start a new email or phone call, spot your contacts’ location on a map and even surfaces all the emails, appointments and files shared with each person.

If you use Office 365 or Exchange Server email for work, you can also look up contacts in your company’s full organizational directory, also known as the Global Address List. In addition to contacts, you can also search for conference rooms, distribution lists and Groups using the new Search Directory feature.

Outlook’s Calendar section now has a three-day view in landscape mode, as well as an improved day picker for creating events, support for zero-length meetings and the ability to remove cancelled appointments.

The update also adds an option to permanently delete messages and brings accessibility and localization improvements. In addition, the iOS app now lets you select all messages in f older for bulk operations, and highlights search terms in results. These features will arrive on Android in a future update.

Microsoft says it is also working to add mobile device management support for enterprise users and the ability to read Information Rights Management protected email, so expect those to show up soon too.

➤ Microsoft Outlook [Android | iOS via Outlook Blogs]