If you need a powerful client to manage your email, contacts, and calendar on your Mac, you could do a lot worse than Outlook. Its biggest downside was the licensing requirements — you had to have some kind of Office license or Microsoft 365 subscription. On Monday, Microsoft lifted that requirement, making Outlook free for all Mac users. Just grab it from the App Store and go.
Outlook supports many email sources other than Microsoft (which often comes at a cost). In addition to 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 isn’t just a port of the Windows version, though many interface elements are shared between the platforms, including an emphasis on the inbox and swipe gestures. Microsoft has improved Outlook specifically for macOS, with native support for Apple Silicon and Mac features like Transfer to iPhone, Calendar widgets, and Reminders in Notification Center. Microsoft also says it’s “creating a preview of upcoming calendar events in the menu bar,” which will be available on the app soon.
The new free Outlook software is available for download in the Mac App Store.