Microsoft is readying a “Lite” version of its flagship messaging and calendar app for Android.
News of the app appeared on the software giant’s feed of forthcoming items on the Windows 365 Roadmap.
The description offered is scanty: “An Android app that brings the main benefits of Outlook in a smaller app size with fast performance for low-end devices on any network.”
Microsoft does not elucidate what it considers the “main benefits” of Outlook.
Nor does it explain just why anyone needs a lighter version of Outlook. The mystery only deepens when you read the Google Play description for Outlook for Android, which does not mention any Android hardware requirements.
Not many Android handsets are notably underpowered these days. Even those sold in developing nations often have plenty of CPU power under the hood. While a precious few might be described as “low-end” it’s hard to see the Venn diagram of owners of such devices and people who want Outlook (or even its “main benefits”) having much overlap.
The Register fancies the mention of “any network” might be the most significant part of the description, as the developing world is still home to many 3G networks, and data allowances on 4G networks can be modest. A version of Outlook that uses less data and can tolerate more latency could be handy on such networks.
But the notion that Microsoft is targeting users in developing nations is hard to sustain given the existence of a support document titled “Get help with Outlook Lite for Android”. That document is published in Romanian, Italian, Hebrew, Chinese and Finnish – languages used in nations where 4G and 5G networks are not hard to find.
The doc perhaps offers another clue by mentioning that the app will only connect to email addresses created under Outlook, Hotmail, Live, and MSN accounts. Work and school accounts don’t work with the app.
Yet the doc’s metadata reveals it was first published on March 18, 2022, then updated on April 11 – a long time ahead of the June 30 post announcing Outlook Lite. That temporal distance makes The Register uncertain the document is entirely relevant to last week’s notification of the app’s existence.
We’ve therefore asked Microsoft to explain the mention of the new app. But seeing as it’s a holiday weekend in the US we don’t expect to receive useful info any time soon.
If you know more, feel free to get in touch. ®
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