Outlook.com has always had a good reputation with the corporates. It was never robust in features as much as its competition was, neither is it too popular, but with the new Premium update, the email hosting service is looking to break the long-standing gap that prevented users from taking up their services.
The Premium version was first launched last October as a preview build. The beta was gobbled up by testers but it was not revealed to everybody at the time. It has been reported that Microsoft quietly launched the same this week. Here are all the features that users can look forward to once they subscribe.
Custom email domains and sharing
The service will provide custom email domain support for up to five users so they can get their own personalized email. They will also be able to share contacts, calendars and documents using OneDrive between the five users of the email domain. The sharing connectivity is all set up between the users who use the email of the particular domain.
No ads
Distraction-free email viewing is the requirement of the day. With Outlook.com Premium, email, photos and documents will appear without any disruption to the user. Unlike in clients like Gmail where ads are less disruptive, ads in Outlook are usually a lot easier to spot and garner the user’s attention, deviating them from focus.
Under the hood
The new Outlook.com features a new inbox with enhanced reliability, privacy as well as security features. There are also new collaborative methods for users to explore, manage time and get things done, integrating itself with Microsoft’s other Office-related offerings.
Pricing
The Verge reported that the pricing for the new Outlook.com Premium package will be $19.95 per year. That price tag is just an early bird discount however, and will go up to $49.99 per year on April 1. Microsoft makes it easy for users to buy the domain that they request on for and also provides the new domains to users completely free for the first year of use, while an additional charge is calculated each year. The plan is currently only available in the United States, where US users can take advantage of the offer. No word yet on whether it will be available worldwide as well.