Microsoft Outlook users will now see more ads on the app

Who do we blame for this? Google? Facebook? Samsung, Xiaomi and others? We are talking about the steady and — now becoming relentless — inflow of ads on the apps that people use. The latest to join the rather not-so-good trend is the Outlook app from Microsoft. Gmail may be the go-to email service for many but Outlook is still quite popular. So if you use the Outlook app on your iPhone or Android device, then there’s some unpleasant news for you. According to a report by The Verge, the Outlook app on both Android and iPhone will now see more ads than before.

How will the ads look on the Outlook app?

Microsoft Outlook app — like other email apps — give users options to customise the look of the inbox. Currently, users have the choice to have either one single inbox or divide it into two categories — Focused and Other — depending on the importance of the emails. Before the new update, users could only see the ads in the Other folders. However, now the ads will be visible in the single inbox format of the Outlook app as well.
In a statement given to The Verge, Microsoft confirmed the move of showing more ads. “For free users of Outlook, ads are shown in their inbox and they can choose to enable the ‘Focused inbox’ feature if they would like to see ads only in the ‘Other’ inbox,” Microsoft spokesperson Caitlin Roulston told The Verge.
Ads aren’t something new for Outlook — or for that matter Gmail — users. On the desktop versions of the apps, ads are quite prominently visible. Microsoft is giving a way out of these ads: buy a Microsoft 365 subscription and you will get an ad-free experience.