If nothing else, the new Outlook for Mac is a welcome alternative to Apple's built-in Mail and Calendar apps, which work basically fine most of the time but improve very little between macOS releases.

When you use non-Microsoft IMAP email accounts like Gmail in the Outlook for Mac app, Microsoft will continuously sync emails, calendar appointments, and contacts to its own servers, effectively maintaining a second copy of all the data that's already being stored by your email provider. To ensure that all third-party email services work the same as first-party services in the Outlook app, it goes a bit further than most mail clients when syncing with third-party email providers.

Microsoft already offers a free version of the Outlook client for iOS and Android, and it's currently testing a preview of a redesigned Outlook app that will replace the free built-in Mail and Calendar apps that ship with Windows 11. The free version of Outlook will look and work mostly the same way as the paid version, but it will be ad supported. Previously available with a Microsoft 365 account or as part of the Office for Mac app suite, the Outlook app is downloadable from the Mac App Store and works with, Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo, and plain old IMAP and POP email accounts. Original story: Microsoft is making the Outlook for Mac app free to use, the company announced this week. We've also added a reference to the free version of Outlook being ad-supported. Update, 4:36pm: Microsoft has updated its post to indicate that the 'ground up' redesign coming for the Mac version of Outlook will continue to be a 'native Mac app,' and not a 'Progressive Web App (PWA)' like the one the company is testing in Windows.

Microsoft 365 mac update