Focused and Other - Get Rid Of!
I want one inbox - I didn't ask for two. The other and focused options are so screwed up and annoying; I cannot even imagine why this was done. Most of the time I am getting focused emails in my other and other emails in my focused. How do your algorithms even sort or decide which is which? And why are you deciding? It is my inbox!
Angelina
shared this idea
First off – I want to thank each and every one of your for trying the Outlook.com beta. Also for spending the time to offer and vote on all of the feedback.
I wanted to make sure that we let you all know that we did add some more controls around the Focused/Other inboxes. This includes allowing you to decide if you want it on or off.
We also fixed some bugs to make sure that it keeps your desired setting after you login/log out
To Control Focused Other Do the following:
1) Login to your account and make sure you are in the Beta
2) In the top right hand corner there is a little Gear Icon, click on it.
3) This opens the quick settings pane. From here you can disable Focused/Other, as well as other features like Conversation View, and the reading Pane.
Also, as you click on the settings in the Quick Settings you should see your screen update. This should help you ensure you are configuring your setup exactly the way you like.
Hope this helps, and thanks for all of the feedback!
David Los
315 comments
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Adina
commented
Not a huge fan of focused. I want all of my mail in one spot unless I otherwise filter it to another folder. Also, this new "beta" version is too bubbly. It's distracting.
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Olivier
commented
i hate the separation of Prioritary and other mail. Give us the third option o have all the email in one
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Musa
commented
Too much like office 365. I don't like the fact that the messages are condensed I like to read the snippet of it but this makes me need to click it and wastes a lot of time(The snippet there already is too short). I can read the snippet and mark whether it is important or not without actually clicking into it. I delete emails which I think is no important without actually clicking into the email and this helps with security as well since you can check if its a phishing email from just the short snippet of the content that you can see straight away. There is no real point of displaying the messages and email at the same time as it is okay to do it in two screens. Maybe you can have a double click option which opens the email on a new window for the people that prefer both messages and email but I find it as theirs too much clutter with everything on one page and would make it harder to use for new users. I like the way the attachment is viewed but also makes it feel like their is too much clutter. If you do want to keep the extra panel on the side then it is best to take out the focused emails and other. This makes it even more confusing and messy also you can miss out on important emails from the confusion. Gmail users will find it complicated to use as theirs is like the original and keep to Gmail as they find it confusing to use the new format from what they are used too.
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kassiopia86@hotmail.com
commented
I find this version as well as the previous version to be very convoluted. I just want simplicity. See what e-mail I have. Open what I want. Discard what I don't want. I really dislike the focused and other inbox as well as the way it creates yet another "folder" within those boxes to group together what it consider to be a certain type of e-mail (Promotions, Newsletters). I don't quite understand the method to this and I don't find it helpful in the slightest, nor do I enjoy having to check 2-4 separate places to see all of my e-mails. The way it filters messages from what's legitimate and what is spam is off as well. There are many things that are very clearly not spam that end up in my spam folder which requires me to remain conscious that I always have to check my spam folder. These newer versions also make the mobile version much more difficult to use. Please go back to the simpler version!
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Sarah Elsley
commented
There are far too many inboxes now. So there are favourites which are split into Focused, other, and Junk.
But then there is also the general inbox which is also split into focused, other, and junk. So there are 6 inboxes in total! I don't need a favourites section, and I'd be inclined to get rid of focused and just get back to a simple Inbox and Junk.
The layout is too confusing with too many menus and options.
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Anonymous
commented
Can we just go back to a single inbox please??? This split between the "Focused" and "Other" is just mangling my messages and they are divided willy nilly between the two with no rhyme or reason.
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potatochee@hotmail.com
commented
Well, I don't have much dissatisfaction with the overall webpage design of this Beta version- vertical or horizontal and add-on feature. However, when this Focused & Other filter came out, I got really frustrated because I don't know where my mails will be 'assigned to' and need to find my mails in 2 places. (totally not good, not efficient) Hence please get rid of this panel and just show the normal, clean and simple Inbox will do. The Spam is doing great, so let it do it's job. =)
By the way, am I the only one who gets the annoying and unnecessary advertisement panel at the right panel??? Please get rid the advertisement slot and if you really want to put them up, please make them smaller enough to view and not blocking the space to read up our mails. Outlook is a tool meant to receive and send emails, not to be misused for business, online games & etc.
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dave
commented
emails missing from Other tab (which was supposed to show all)
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Anonymous
commented
I liked it as it was before the 'focused' and 'other' categories were made available. There's more clicking to be done now. Previously, all you had to do was scroll to find what you wanted to open or not. Now you have to keep clicking back and forth. I don't like it, sorry. However, I do appreciate the efforts you go to to improve. Perhaps you could ask people how they think you could give a better service. Other than that, thank you for being there.
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aaalbedo
commented
I received several important emails this week that never showed up in my inbox (focused or other). I had to search for keywords, and even THEN it only showed my most recent outgoing messages to the person that sent the missing ones; when I clicked on that, it finally did show me the new email (but it still didn;t show up in my inbox). Probably a default setting, but a really idiotic one! How many more emails can't I see right now??? I turned off the beta.
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Mik Mak
commented
Interface appears to shudder and jitter and images appear and then disappear. It makes me feel rather ill. For some reason it makes my CPU run very fast! I didn't like the 'new' Outlook being split up into Focused and Other and I like this one even less.
I want to go back to the original pre-2017 Outlook, please. -
Megan Statham
commented
Since the introduction of "Focused" and "Other", I've preferred to check my emails on the default app that comes on my phone than on my computer because having to flip between the two different areas for my emails is annoying. I'm subscribed to certain email lists for a reason, because I want to see them in my inbox and if I no longer want them I unsubscribe. I'm sure you're not going to remove this 'feature' but at least let me choose what emails are determined to be important and not, at the moment there's no rhyme nor reason to why some emails end up in focused and some end up in other. If there's already a way, then, please, let me know.
Also, I echo other people's thoughts on allowing us to choose having the right hand side reading on or off. I personally don't like it as I find the text to be squished and needing zooming in on.
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Anonymous
commented
It was already annoying enough with the two arbitrary sections (focused and other) making me check my email twice but with the vertical panels, it's unreadable... a bit of each... please put it back to one section and let us sort them out! (: I don't want checking my email to be actual work... many people have little time and it needs to be efficient. Thank you and have a lovely day!
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Paul Mallatratt
commented
Sorry guys, tried it but the focused inbox had worked really well on the previous version, this one has way too many unrelated emails in its content.
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Glyn
commented
switch the button
