Should You Ditch Gmail or Google Inbox on iOS for Outlook?

Email has evolved with our devices. In the beginning, you needed to create a local database for email. Then came Hotmail and we had webmail. Soon with Gmail, we stopped worrying about storing, saving, and backing up email. Google was doing it for us. All we needed to do was remember the username and password.

Now we’re spoiled because there are so many email apps built on top of Gmail. Unlike other communication platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, email is truly decentralized. That means options. A lot of them.

Right now email is built up to be such a problem that Google itself has two email apps on iOS. Gmail and Google Inbox. Both are very different apps and have their own strengths and weaknesses.

More, Less, and More

I still have Google Inbox installed. But my default app is Gmail. I like Gmail’s list view of emails, the fact that I have access to all my filters, switching between accounts, and more. Inbox is great at organizing email if you get a lot of them.

Now, Microsoft Outlook has come out with its own app. Well, not really. It’s just a rebranded and improved version of Acompli, which Alvaro talked about here.

Outlook, just like Acompli is more than an email app. It integrates with calendars, files, and has a priority inbox with special notifications just like Google Inbox. And it does all this while looking like a “normal” email app.

So let’s look at why Microsoft Outlook has the potential to be your primary email app instead of using multiple email apps for different reasons.

Focus Email

While Gmail has Priority inbox, Outlook has Focus mail. This is where the things that Outlook thinks are important will reside. You can also get push notifications just for Focus emails, making life a bit easier.

Integration with Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive

Outlook has a Files menu that lets you access files stored on cloud accounts. You can also view attachments stored in your email.

The access to cloud accounts makes sending attachments to documents really easy. You don’t need to open an app and press a bunch of buttons first.

Calendars

Email and calendars kind of go hand in hand. So now you can just flip between them in the tap of a button. They are also integrated so if an email specifies a time and a date, Outlook will let you add it to your calendar directly.

Schedule

This is something that was started by Mailbox and has evolved its way to Google Inbox. Outlook will basically let you snooze a message till later. It will disappear from your queue and you’ll be notified about it at the time you specify. This evening, tomorrow, and so on.

Why Go with Outlook?

I know that for some, even the name Outlook is irksome. But as I’ve said, this is not the Windows Mobile 6 type part of a desktop app for mobile phones. This is a proper email, calendar, and file sharing app. It’s the best parts of all three that make it worthwhile.

It has an Inbox-like schedule feature but doesn’t have that UI overhaul with wasted space. It has Gmail’s list view for email but it’s native, not increasingly web based like Gmail. The web dependence of the Gmail app makes it a pain and sometimes impossible to use.

Yes, your emails go through Microsoft’s servers for push notifications and to be scanned. But MS’s privacy policy is a lot better than Google’s.

So give it a spin and let me know if it works out for you. It didn’t? Feel free to share either way. Don’t give a hoot? Do tell. No better place for it than anonymous comments in the oblivious void that is the internet.