Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Microsoft could finally bring Focused Inbox to the Windows 10 Mail app

Microsoft brings Focused Inbox to the Windows 10 Mail app for some lucky users

Mark Coppock
By
Outlook’s Focused Inbox – Focus on the email that matters most.
Microsoft’s cross-platform strategy has been one of the more striking aspects of its recent transition from the Windows company to the “cloud-first, mobile-first” productivity solutions company. It’s no longer true that Microsoft only makes apps for Windows, and in fact, some of its apps work best on iOS and Android.

One example of this phenomenon is the Outlook Mobile app, which has offered features and functionality on iOS and Android that have been pulled over from Microsoft’s purchase of the popular Accompli email app, but that haven’t yet made their way to the Windows 10 Mail app. One of those features is the Focused Inbox, which was promised by Microsoft but not yet delivered — a situation that is to be rectified in February 2017, as Neowin reports.

Recommended Videos

Focused Inbox lets users more clearly and efficiently organize their email inboxes by putting important messages in their own folder. With Focused Inbox turned on, the inbox will have two tabs labeled “Focused” and “Other,” letting users quickly triage the messages that Outlook assumes are the most important. Fortunately, Focused Inbox can also be turned off, for users who find Outlook’s predictive powers to be less than accurate.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Microsoft indicated in October that the Focused Inbox feature would make its way to the Windows 10 Mail app on mobile devices and to Outlook 2016 in November, but that deadline obviously passed with no update in sight. However, Microsoft updated a recent blog post indicating that “All supported Outlook.com account(s) will be able to see Focused Inbox in the Mail app for Windows 10 starting in February 2017.”

Related

Now, it appears that Microsoft is pushing the Focused Inbox to some Windows 10 users, with it showing up in the latest update to the Windows Mail app. There is no rhyme or reason to who is receiving the Focused Inbox at this point. Users on the production version of Windows 10 are receiving it and so Microsoft does not seem to be limiting it to Windows Insiders — or, at least, not to Windows Insiders builds.

If you are on the list, you will first get the following notification when you launch the Mail app after updating it.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Then, you will get another popup when you click over to your Outlook.com account in the app.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Focused Inbox works for Outlook.com accounts only at the moment, while the Outlook app on iOS and Android supports the feature for other email accounts as well. The Focused Inbox works just as described and as it works on the other platforms. Email that the app decides is particularly important will show up under the Focused tab, and everything else will show up under Other. The jury is still out on exactly how smart the system is in filtering messages.

It looks like Office 2016 still isn’t going to see the Focused Inbox feature anytime soon. There is no word yet on when everyone will get the Focused Inbox in The Windows 10 Mail app — perhaps that is a feature that will officially show up for everyone in the upcoming Creators Update expected in April. However, at least there is some movement in bringing the Windows 10 Mail app more in line with its iOS and Android counterparts.

Edited on 02-17-2017 by Mark Coppock: Microsoft has pushed the Focused Inbox to some users on Windows 10.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Mark Coppock
Mark Coppock
Computing Writer
Mark has been a geek since MS-DOS gave way to Windows and the PalmPilot was a thing. He’s translated his love for…
Top 10 Windows shortcuts everyone should know
An individual using a laptop's keyboard.

Windows shortcuts are a constantly-used feature by practically all PC users. Apart from saving you time from carrying out the specific command without having to perform a few extra clicks on your mouse, it’s simply more convenient to refer back to shortcuts via your keyboard.

Although you may be satisfied with the Windows shortcuts you already know about and utilize on a daily basis, you can enhance your general Windows experience in a big way with these 10 shortcuts everyone should know.
Ctrl + Z
Tired of always having to use your mouse to find and click the Undo button on a program like Microsoft Word or, say, entering details on a website or editing images? Ctrl + Z will basically undo whatever your last action was, providing you a convenient way to reverse edits and changes within a second. From personal experience, this shortcut proved to be especially useful for productivity applications.
Ctrl + Shift + T
We’ve all been there. Nowadays, our browsers are inundated with multiple tabs, and as such, it’s hard to keep track of at times. Eventually, you’re going to close a tab on accident when trying to select it. Instead of trying to remember what it was or spending a few seconds accessing it and reopening it via the Recently Closed feature (on Chrome), simply hit Ctrl + Shift + T to restore the last closed tab. Similarly, Ctrl + N will open a new tab.
Alt + Tab

Read more
After 10 years of headaches, I’m finally a believer in Windows on ARM
The Microsoft Surface 3 with its blue keyboard.

Almost two years in, Apple is on the verge of completing its transition to ARM. It might surprise you to know, then, that Microsoft started its own journey to ARM chips long before Apple.

But Windows' support for ARM has been far less smooth. There aren't many more Windows devices with ARM chips than there were five years ago -- and I can attest to having personally used every failed attempt along the way.

Read more
Windows 11 might pull ahead of Windows 10 in one key way
Windows 11 and Windows 10 operating system logos are displayed on laptop screens.

Windows 11 has been around for nearly a year, but the debate on how it stands up against Windows 10 is still going strong. That's why custom computer builder Puget Systems revisited that very topic, with the results finding that Windows 11 might pull ahead of Windows 10 in one key area.

This one key area involves content creation, and Puget Systems detailed that in several tests, made gains over Windows 10 in the last year. Those gains are mainly due to monthly Windows 11 patches, and the launch of new CPUs. Yet Windows 10 also performed faster in some tests, too, where the hardware running the tests were the same.

Read more