If you need a reliable client to manage your email, contacts, and calendar on your Mac, you can do a lot worse than Outlook. Previously, its biggest drawback was the licensing requirement – you had to have some sort of Office license or Microsoft 365 subscription. On Monday, Microsoft dropped that requirement, making Outlook free for all Mac users. Just grab it from the App Store and go.
Outlook supports many non-Microsoft email sources (which is often expensive). Along with Microsoft 365 and Outlook.com, as well as Hotmail and MSN, Outlook for Mac also works with Gmail, Yahoo Mail, iCloud, IMAP, and POP accounts.
Outlook for Mac is not just a port of the Windows version, although many interface elements are common across platforms, including the inbox and swipe gestures. Microsoft has optimized Outlook specifically for macOS with native support for Apple Silicon and Mac-specific features such as Handoff to iPhone, calendar widgets, and notification center reminders. Microsoft also states that it is “creating a preview of upcoming calendar events in the menu bar”, which will be coming to the app soon.
The new free Outlook is available for download on the Mac App Store.