Microsoft Outlook is finally solving one of its biggest email headaches

Some Microsoft Outlook users will soon be able to utilize the platform not just to read their messages, but also to capture and upload video.

The email client has announced it is working on a new feature that will allow users of the Outlook Mobile app to capture a video from their smartphone, before “seamlessly” uploading it to their email.

The launch will see Microsoft looking to remove a time-consuming and frustrating step when users attempt to attach or include video footage in an Outlook email by hopefully making the process a lot smoother.

Outlook video upload

The company says that the function will utilize Microsoft’s enterprise-focused cloud storage system OneDrive for Business, with its larger capacity and increased capabilities allowing for all kinds of video to be uploaded.

“Uploading the video will leverage OneDrive for Business, allowing users to benefit from increased storage space and large limits for video size and length,” the entry (opens in new tab) in the official Microsoft 365 roadmap reads.

The service will only be available to Android users to begin with, but if it proves a success, we expect it to expand to iOS users as well.

The update is currently listed as “in development”, but Microsoft says a preview should be available this month, with a full rollout set to follow soon after.

The launch is the latest boost to Microsoft Outlook in recent months as the company looks to stay relevant and useful for its users. 

Recently, it introduced reactions to Outlook, allowing users to “thumbs up, laugh, heart, celebrate, or shed a tear in reaction to emails”, giving them the chance to add a little more personality to their messages.

The company’s video conferencing service Microsoft Teams is also working on a feature that will bring Teams chat into Outlook, allowing participants to send a quick message, or review a chat, without having to open up Microsoft Teams separately, meaning users won’t need to switch between the applications.

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