The Microsoft Outlook app for Android and iOS displays more ads than before. The new banners are displayed directly in the inbox.
Microsoft is displaying more ads in its Outlook app
As you may know, the Outlook mobile app has two main tabs or views, Focused Inbox and Other. The former collects important emails, while the Others tab displays all emails in your inbox.
Ads aren’t good for a user’s privacy, but banners are causing another problem this time around. The ads look similar to regular emails, which may trick users into touching them. They appear right at the top of the page with a contact balloon next to them, and that’s what makes it look like a real email. The banners have a small text indicator that says “Ad”, but it could be easily lost. This is similar to what Google does with ads in its Gmail app (Promotions tab).
You can swipe the ad (left to right) to ignore it, just like you would with a real email. However, this is not a permanent solution, as the ad appears again after a while or after restarting the app.
Some reports claim that the ads open in an in-app browser, but that’s not my case. They are clickable links that are opened in the default web browser.
How to disable ads in the Microsoft Outlook app
Ads in the Microsoft Outlook app for iOS and Android have been slowly rolling out to users over the past few months. Users can disable ads by purchasing a Microsoft 365 subscription. In a statement released to The Verge, Microsoft said that users can avoid these ads by enabling Targeted Inbox. This will limit the ads to the “Other” inbox.
To do this, tap on your profile picture in the top left corner. Now tap on the gear icon to open Outlook settings. Scroll down until you see Focused Inbox, tap it to activate the feature. This will add the Focused Inbox tab to the app home screen.
If none of these options seem to be an acceptable solution, don’t worry. There is another way to get rid of the ads, by using a private DNS service that blocks ads. I use NextDNS and have noticed that the ads only show when I have disabled DNS, with it enabled however the ads were blocked. You may need to close the app and launch it after applying DNS settings for the change to take effect.
Do you want to switch to another app? you can check out K9 Mail and FairEMail for Android, both of which are open source, although only the latter supports OAuth. IOS users may want to stick with the stock Mail app in iOS.
On a side note, the Microsoft Outlook web app for Windows 11 that leaked a few months ago now works with personal accounts that have Hotmail, Outlook addresses, and is expected to add support for Gmail accounts soon. Here is a screenshot of the app interface.
Apple is also rumored to be testing ads in its iPhone apps and that they could be implemented in the Apple Maps app in iOS 16.
Do you use the Outlook app on your phone?
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Ads in the Microsoft Outlook app for Android and iOS are getting worse
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Microsoft is displaying more ads in the Outlook app for Android and iOS. Here’s how to block ads.
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Ashwin
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Ghacks technology news
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