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back to article Outlook.com adds IMAP, OAuth

Microsoft has added support for Internet message access protocol (IMAP) to Outlook.com, its web-based email service. Announced first on Reddit and later in a blog post, there's little practical impact in the change, other than posisbly encouraging more developers and users to point their email clients at Outlook.com. As …

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  1. Adrian Midgley 1

    Microsoft adopts standard!

    Well gosh.

    7 1
    1. g e
      Reply Icon

      Re: Microsoft adopts standard!

      Especially considering IMAP's only been around for 27 years, too!

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    2. ecofeco Silver badge
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      Re: Microsoft adopts standard!

      Damn. You both beat me to it.

      Up-voted both of ya.

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  2. frank ly

    Just wondering ......

    Does the NSA get its own special OAuth token, just to make things a bit easier?

    4 1
  3. Hans 1

    Exchange also has IMAP, it is a service you need to start, well in fact, restart every now and then because it regularly crashes ...

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      IMAP doesn't ever crash here across multiple exchange servers . Try updating from the RTM version...

      1 1
  4. Silviu C.

    Can you hear the screams? Hell has frozen over.

    Other than that you can see their reluctance in being forced into it from their press release which basically says we adopt this open standard but EAS is better. What they forgot to say is that EAS is a closed protocol that only MS controls.

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    1. Robert Moore
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      > "What they forgot to say is that EAS is a closed protocol that only MS controls."

      From the perspective of Microsoft, that is better.

      If you disagree you are a pinko, commie, Linus user.

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yes, IMAP has been around for 27 years

    And it hasn't really improved much in all that time.

    It's still horrifically insecure and clunky.

    I am extremely grateful of this article, though. I didn't realise I could connect to my Hotmail account using my Androids Exchange ActiveSync option (it has an option specifically for Hotmail, but it's pretty crap, only being able to view my inbox).

    1 3
  6. Robert Helpmann??
    Childcatcher

    Plus ça change…

    We no longer look for "man on the street" remarks to validate a point. Now, we go for "man with a tweet."

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  7. cs94njw

    At last!

    Now I can configure my wife's Android phone to use a decent email client, rather than be forced to use the Outlook crap!

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    1. jonathanb Silver badge
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      Re: At last!

      Use the stock Android email client. Configure it as an Exchange account using the server m.hotmail.com

      Username is your email address, password is the same as your password for logging into the website, domain you leave blank.

      ActiveSync is better than IMAP for email on a phone, mainly because it uses less battery and bandwidth.

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    2. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: At last!

      i've waited so long to delete that stupid outlook microsoft / seven app from my android. it is an embarrasment to email in general.

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  8. GSystems

    lol Of Course!

    I spent the better part of four years dealing with Hotmail...dealing with Windows Live Mail to have a semblance of IMAP on my Hotmail account...

    ...scoured the internet for ways to incorporate Hotmail into a real mail client (such as Thunderbird)...

    ...acquiesced to using the Outlook Email Client so that I could use my Hotmail account, but that was at the expense of my other, IMAP-activated accounts which, for some unknown reason, would not refresh without being clicked on (what use is that????)...

    ...spent the better part of two months searching for a non GMail email account that offered IMAP services to replace my Hotmail account...

    ...resisted the urge to really dig into Outlook.com because of the apparent abandonment by Microsoft on this IMAP issue...

    ...Spent approximately a week last year transferring all of the email that I could from Hotmail to GMail through the Windows Live Mail client (talk about laborious)...lost some of my email trying to do things that way as well (the time stamps got messed up on quite a few emails...

    .....!!!!!!

    And now you activate IMAP?!?! I have so many words for you, Microsoft...but I don't want this comment to get flagged...

    Either way... cool... It's about time, I guess... But don't worry, Outlook will NOT become my main email service anytime soon...or later...

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