Microsoft has made Outlook Lite available in select low-powered Android markets.
“Outlook is used by millions of people every day for their email and calendaring needs around the world. Still, there is a wide range of devices that don’t have all the capabilities they need to get the best Outlook experience on their smartphone,” Microsoft said on its Outlook blog.
The simplified version of the popular email service, often used reluctantly for work matters, is said to come with what Microsoft calls all the core features of the original, including emails, calendar, contacts. The difference, according to Microsoft, is that the app is only 5MB, can run on low-end devices like those with only 1GB of RAM, and doesn’t require much battery.
It is also designed for use on “all networks”. Among those networks, Microsoft name-checked 2G and 3G, a detail it left out in its Windows 365 roadmap.
Outlook Lite was released in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Mexico, Peru, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and Venezuela. Microsoft promises more locations in the future.
It makes sense that the UK didn’t get an invite for the rollout, as the government has announced it will phase out both 2G and 3G networks by 2033, with companies like BT opting out of 2G a full decade earlier.
Many countries that are on the rollout list, such as India, still typically have significant numbers of 2G users. The subcontinent’s operators are not yet running a 5G network, and the country includes more than 100 million who rely on 2G.
Microsoft said Outlook Lite will “empower more people, schools, universities and small businesses with a solution for their lightweight mobile devices,” which seems like a decent way to at least establish some following and compete with the likes of Gmail.
For its part, Google offers the minimalistic Gmail Go, which lacks many of the more complex features found in the basic version of Gmail (no Google Meet, for example), while retaining the most essential functionality. Its size is just under 10 MB and can only be downloaded on low-end phones.
As for Microsoft’s Lite version, it will not support Android Work Profile and Mobile Application Management (MAM) for work accounts. For those who need this functionality, they will need to use the original Outlook, making the Lite app a controversial proposition no matter where they live. ®
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