Microsoft engineers are busy developing Outlook Lite, a new Android app designed for cheaper, lower-spec smartphones and tablets.
Information on the upcoming release is limited, but it’s described in a new roadmap entry (opens in new tab) as follows: “An Android app that brings the main benefits of Outlook in a smaller app size with fast performance for low-end devices on any network.”
According to the roadmap, the new email app will be made available to all Android users by the end of the month.
Outlook Lite for Android
The Lite version of Microsoft’s Outlook email client for Android devices will focus on optimizing performance, which should improve the experience for lower-end and cheaper devices.
Android Central (opens in new tab) reports the primary difference to be that Outlook Lite “only allows you to create a single account type,” which should not be an issue for most low-end Android users.
According to the same article, it appears that some design changes have also made their way over to the simplified version of the mail app, including a redesigned navigation bar at the bottom of the user interface, which is set to replace the “Search” button with a “Contacts” button.
For several other low-performance apps that are already available – like Facebook Lite and Google Go – some features are removed for the best experience on these low-end devices.
Outlook Lite seems to do most of its work on the back end, also promising to reduce the amount of storage space that it needs in order to be installed.
TechRadar Pro has asked Microsoft whether iOS users can expect a similar Outlook re-work in future.