Two intriguing features in Microsoft Outlook, Play My Emails and the Daily Briefing, are scheduled to obtain updates that add new Cortana-powered AI to features that go far past simply electronic mail.
Microsoft’s AI assistant, Cortana, has moved from being an integral a part of Windows to extra of an assistive expertise. Outlook has been the primary beneficiary, nevertheless, new Cortana-powered intelligence is coming to Teams, and to the Cortana app inside Windows 10 as nicely.
One of the issues with Microsoft’s parade of latest options is solely conserving observe of the timeline. The Daily Briefing performance debuted in preview mode a 12 months in the past, however on the Microsoft Ignite convention it’s now turning into formally obtainable for Microsoft 365 customers with Exchange Online mailboxes. Play My Emails is already out for iOS and Android for U.S. subscribers, nevertheless it’s rolling out in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and India throughout the coming months.
Microsoft summed up its enhancements in Cortana and AI throughout its varied apps by way of a prolonged explanatory video, which we’ve summed up under.
What is Outlook’s Daily Briefing?
The Daily Briefing is a customized electronic mail that Office constructs for you, based mostly upon what Microsoft 365 (or Office) is aware of about you and your day. It’s an improved, email-based model of what Windows 10’s Cortana perform used to do, offering you a pop-up view of your day. It’s additionally completely dependent upon your administrator, who should resolve whether or not to allow it—and, in my employer’s case, apparently permit it via the spam filter as nicely. You can flip the Daily Briefing on and off by way of Cortana.office.com.
An instance of the Daily Briefing electronic mail inside Outlook, which is extra than simply an “email.” It’s a abstract of your obtainable duties and tasks, with an opportunity to behave on every.
The Briefing electronic mail outlines your assembly schedule for the day, after which it provides preparatory duties and related paperwork that will help you put together for every. If you view the Briefing in Outlook (both for the online, the desktop app, or on Android or iOS) every of those duties shall be intelligently prised from electronic mail that Outlook “reads,” searching for related funds spreadsheets, say, or your dedication to ship a presentation—plus your draft of the PowerPoint in query.
Microsoft’s future enhancements to the Daily Briefing electronic mail embody a card to plan your subsequent week’s duties.
Some of the reminders the Briefing highlights shall be obtainable as To-Do duties, or presumably a Teams hyperlink. These can be found now. In the approaching months, Microsoft says, the Briefing electronic mail will add a weekly card to put aside time within the coming week, whether or not it is for 1:1 time with supervisor or “me” time to take a breather. Managers can even get a complementary card with related duties, however from their viewpoint.
Play My Emails enhancing, too
Play My Emails is a mobile-first function for a world that many don’t reside in proper now. It begins as an audio digest of your Outlook inbox, and after Outlook reads every electronic mail, you’ll be able to take motion orally: archive it, reply to the sender, and extra.
You can arrange Play My Emails throughout the Settings in Outlook iOS and Android, whcih provides you this little notification, under.
Play My Emails has different new options. In Outlook for iOS, you’ll now have the ability to use the Play My Emails function with greater than only a single account. You’ll additionally have the ability to use the function with headphones, after which name the one that despatched you an electronic mail.
Microsoft additionally says you’ll be now have the ability to play emails from a selected individual, time, or matter, or simply learn electronic mail out of your favourite folks. And in case you have a automotive that’s arrange for it—the back-end logistics aren’t fairly clear—you’ll have the ability to navigate the expertise utilizing your automotive’s personal buttons.
Play My Emails is an audio-driven format, designed so that you can hearken to, not have a look at. You can reply in a wide range of methods, principally by way of voice.
Cortana is now in (cellular) Teams
Cortana has now been added to the cellular Teams app in iOS and Android, particularly throughout the United States.
If you click on the microphone button within the higher proper of the Teams app, you’ll be able to start talking to Cortana. The AI will aid you carry out the next duties: be a part of a gathering, facilitate a name to a contact, launch a chat, share recordsdata, provide you with a rundown of your recordsdata, and navigate from channel to channel. You don’t must be too exact, as you’ll be able to say “Join my next meeting” and be joined to it.
Sharing a file throughout the cellular model of Microsoft Teams
Advanced features embody issues like “present the quarterly review deck” and “go to the appendix slide.” You can ship a message to the attendees of your subsequent assembly, as Microsoft’s suggestions page lists.
Cortana’s enhancements in Windows 10
It appears considerably heretical to go away the brand new Windows-specific Cortana options till the top, however the reality is that Cortana isn’t as highly effective in Windows as she as soon as was. For one, she’s now an app, slightly than an built-in a part of Windows—a brand new function within the Windows 10 May 2020 Update. Cortana initially didn’t reply to a wake phrase (“Cortana”) in any respect, however she now does so by way of an August replace for customers within the United States and United Kingdom.
Cortana already can reply queries about your upcoming conferences…
Some of that productiveness help focus assigned to Cortana in Teams and Outlook is being dropped at Cortana inside Windows, too, although for a really particular viewers: Microsoft 365 customers with Exchange Online mailboxes in English within the United States.
For instance, Cortana will intelligently search paperwork throughout your native and shared drives, turning a seek for “show me the recent sales presentation” into a listing of the related paperwork. You’ll have the ability to dictate fast emails by way of Cortana. The Cortana app offers you a fast heads-up of an upcoming assembly, full with a hyperlink to hitch it and the prepratory supplies. You’ll additionally have the ability to ask work-specific queries about colleagues (“Who is Eliza Smith?”) and your schedule (“Is my afternoon free?”), which can faucet Microsoft Search and Outlook, respectively.
..and shortly it’s going to aid you put together for them, too.
Not all these options are technically new. The skill to compose quick emails orally by way of Cortana was a function that Microsoft added to Cortana inside Windows 10 years in the past, then eradicated when Cortana changed into an app. Adding it again feels a bit of anticlimactic.
Microsoft might have ceded the final assistant market to Amazon Alexa and particularly Google Assistant. But it is also truthful to say that it is shifted gears to make Cortana one of the best enterprise assistant she will be.