Microsoft brings Outlook to Android as Satya Nadella promotes Stephen Elop in management shake-up

Microsoft announced it is releasing a version of the Outlook Web App for Android smartphones, as chief executive Satya Nadella promoted former Nokia boss Stephen Elop as part of a management shake-up.

The announcement of a version of the Outlook Web App for Android was made at Microsoft Exchange Conference (MEC) in Austin, with the new version joining existing versions designed for Apple iOS smartphones and tablets.

The app will require a subscription to Microsoft’s Office 365 service.

The new release comes less than a week after Microsoft announced it is releasing a version of Office 365 for iPad, as part of a broader strategy by Nadella to bring Microsoft’s cloud services to a range of devices.

Aside from the Outlook Web Access review, the tech giant also announced a range of new features for Outlook at the conference.

In one of the features, called Clutter, Outlook will determine which emails a user is likely to find unimportant, and automatically clear them into a clutter folder. As with junk email, users will be able to retrieve emails incorrectly classified as clutter.

A second feature is improved integration between Microsoft’s cloud storage service OneDrive and Outlook.

In a statement, Microsoft technical product manager Steve Chew explains how the integration will work.

“When you send an attachment from your computer or device you can now automatically upload the file to your OneDrive cloud drive and send it as a link. You can also easily attach a file directly from your OneDrive cloud drive when sending an email in Outlook Web App

“You can now edit the document and write an email response in a single window. The really exciting part here is that all of your changes are automatically being saved to the attachment that was added to your email response.

“Once you’re all finished making edits to the document and typing your response, you can click Send, and both the response as well as the edited document are sent off to the recipients.”

Microsoft is also integrating Yammer group collaboration into Exchange, meaning the same groups appearing across Outlook, SharePoint and Yammer services.

Meanwhile, in a separate announcement, Nadella announced a shakeup of the company’s senior executive team.

The changes will see former Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop appointed as the new executive vice president of Microsoft Devices Group, reporting directly to Nadella. Aside from overseeing the former devices arm of Nokia, Elop will also collaborate with the Xbox division.

Under the leadership of Elop and Terry Myerson, Phil Spencer will oversee a new position overseeing the Xbox, Xbox Live and Microsoft Studios.

Nadella also announced in a statement that he’s giving his old job, overseeing Microsoft’s cloud and enterprise division, to Scott Guthrie.

“Recently, I’ve discussed with the Microsoft leadership team the need to zero in on what truly makes Microsoft unique. As I said on my first day, we need to do everything possible to thrive in a mobile-first, cloud-first world.

“The announcements last week, our news this week, the Nokia acquisition closing soon, and the leaders and teams we are putting in place are all great first steps in making this happen.”