Outlook for iOS to be updated; Sunrise Cal to be phased out
Starting today iOS users will start getting an updated Outlook with a new cleaner look. Soon Microsoft will bring technology from its Sunrise Calendar app to the Outlook mobile app for iOS. Sunrise is a very popular Calendar app on both iOS and Android and once the features of Sunrise have been migrated to the Outlook Calendar the Sunrise app will be removed from the stores. Android users can expect these updates at later date.
Outlook for Mobile Updated
Microsoft is picking up the pace with changes to the newly christened Outlook Mobile. This most recent update adds greater functionality to the Agenda widget and includes general performance improvements. Unfortunately the underlying Calendar the agenda widget uses is still less featured and less user friendly than Microsoft’s Sunrise Calendar which remains our recommended Calendar app for Mobile. 
Outlook Mobile update released: People / Contacts integration
Outlook Mobile (Formerly Acompli) is in use at most of our clients as their mail client to access on premises Exchange servers as well as Office 365. While the program has remained mostly unchanged from Acompli since the purchase by Microsoft today’s update is a major shift. Previously your full contact information was not available from within Outlook. When using People it would only provide you with a contacts email address. Now you have full access to all of the information in your Exchange contacts including notes.
This update will enable users to stop using the Android contacts application and brings the Outlook mobile client very close to being as full featured as a desktop mail client.
Outlook for iOS and Android updated
Outlook implements password enforcement using Exchange ActiveSync. If your company email policy requires that devices have a password in order to sync mail, Outlook will enforce this at the device level.
On iOS devices, Outlook will check to make sure a passcode is properly set. In the event a passcode is not set, it will prompt users to set one up in iOS settings.
On Android devices, Outlook will enforce screen lock rules. Further, Google provides controls that allow Outlook to honor additional Office 365 and Exchange policies regarding password length and complexity requirements and the number of allowable screen-unlock attempts before wiping the phone. It will also encourage storage encryption if it is not enabled.
Devices that do not support these security settings will not be able to connect to an account.
In addition to this security enhancement several new features have been added:
Outlook for iOS: You can now disable the app’s default Conversation view, which groups all messages from the same thread together.
Outlook for Android: You can now customize what happens when you swipe left or right on an email message or other item. To customize these gestures, visit Settings, Swipe Options.
Outlook released for iOS and Android
We have been recommending Accompli as an email/contacts/cal solution on iOs and Android for some time now. While not perfect they gave business users a closer approximation of the experience most of our clients have with Microsoft Outlook.
It turns out we were not the only ones to see the similarities as Microsoft has purchased the company that produced Accompli and released a re-branded version named unsurprisingly Outlook.
While this version is virtually if not identical to Accompli it is a separate build and you will want to be using this version as it will be the one receiving new features moving forward. Outlook can downloaded from the links below:
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