Support for ‘New Outlook’ and ‘Classic Outlook’

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The ‘New Outlook’ is actually just Outlook online (365) inside of a Windows frame (instead of your browser), but the traditional desktop Outlook software isn’t actually going away anytime soon. While it’s true the new Outlook only supports web-based add-ins and not traditional ‘COM’ add-ins, Microsoft’s own documentation confirms Outlook desktop and COM add-in deprecation isn’t slated until 2029 (and will likely slip as the many businesses and organizations have invested heavily on COM add-ins). Obviously, Microsoft doesn’t want the costs associated with maintaining both desktop software and SaaS software, so they are motivated to move everyone to their SaaS products. In their own documentation Microsoft is referring to the current Outlook desktop as ‘classic’, and perhaps similar to Coca-Cola’s debacle with the New and the Classic monikers, Microsoft had to quickly reel in the claims it was going to force customers to switch in the near future.

Anyone who has compared the features of Word or Excel desktop to their online counterparts will know the desktop versions have superior features and more mature interfaces, and the same applies to the Outlook desktop. Online Outlook isn’t feature complete, and is still playing catch-up, which is why Microsoft is giving themselves a 5-year window for deprecation. We anyhow have started a parallel journey towards migrating our COM based add-ins to web based ones for the new Outlook. However, this is a long process as the new Outlook is still have a lot to catch up to support similar COM-based capabilities/features offering to 3rd party developers like us. But we are invested in this journey and we will be bringing out support for the new Outlook sooner than later. I hope this explanation gives you the answer you were seeking. 2029 is way in the future and till then let’s enjoy what the classic Outlook has to offer.

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