In early July, Microsoft officials said they were ready a smaller, faster “Outlook Lite” app for low-end Android devices. On the 1st of August, Microsoft starts rolling out Outlook Lite in some countries. The app is available as Free download from Google Play Store.
“Outlook Lite brings key Microsoft Outlook features in a smaller-sized application with fast performance to lightweight devices on any network,” including 2G and 3G, officials reiterated in this week.
The Lite app includes access to email, calendar, and contacts, and has a download size of around 5MB. It is optimized to run fast on all Android devices including those with only 1 GB RAM and uses less battery than regular Outlook. Outlook Lite currently supports Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live, MSN, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Exchange Online accounts.
Officials say Microsoft is planning to add support for third-party and multiple accounts “in the future.” Outlook Lite does not support Android Work Profiles and Mobile Application Management (MAM) for work accounts. Therefore, Microsoft recommends that business users who need these features continue to use the existing Outlook mobile client for Android instead of the Lite version.
As of August 1, the app is only available in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Mexico, Peru, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and Venezuela. Officials said they would consider adding assistance to other countries in the future.
Some company followers say Microsoft already has Outlook Lite in the market in some countries. I asked Microsoft if the app coming out this week is an update to something that already exists. No word back so far.
