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Microsoft to Bring Add-Ins to Outlook 2016 on the Mac

Microsoft has announced plans to bring support for add-ins to Outlook 2016 for the Mac. The support will be rolled out to Office Insiders first, with a release to all users soon to follow. Add-ins allow Outlook users to accomplish tasks directly from their email inbox.

Whether it’s scheduling a meeting at your favorite coffee shop, updating a CRM entry or paying your friends, you will soon be able to accomplish all this and more right from your inbox through add-ins in Outlook 2016 for Mac. In the coming weeks, add-ins in Outlook 2016 for Mac will begin to roll out—starting with Office Insider Fast. All existing add-ins for Outlook on the web and desktop—including Boomerang, Dynamics 365, Evernote, Giphy, Nimble, PayPal, Starbucks, Yelp, Uber, Wunderlist and Zomato—will be available as part of Office Insider Fast access.

Users interested in getting early access to add-ins in Outlook for Mac, can join the Office Insider Fast program for Mac. An Office 365 subscription is required to join this program. When add-ins are made available to Office Insider Fast users, Office Insider members will see the Office Store icon in Outlook. Just click the Store icon in the Outlook command bar to open the Office Store. Just search for the add-in you’re looking for and turn its toggle to On. The add-in command will then appear in your inbox you can start using it.

Microsoft is also rolling out new features to Outlook.com, which includes support for Connectors, which are similar to Office 365 Connectors. Starting today, the preview will roll out for the following connectors: Asana, Bing News, Bitbucket, GitHub, Twitter, Trello, Wunderlist and Yammer. More services will be added soon.

To access Connectors for the inbox in Outlook on the web, click the Settings gear icon (top right) and select Manage Integrations. Click Connectors and then add the connector you wish to install. The connector will allow you to subscribe to a rich set of notifications and you may configure additional settings based on your preference. Once configured, you will start receiving notifications from the connector.

Chris Hauk

Chris is a Senior Editor at Mactrast. He lives somewhere in the deep Southern part of America, and yes, he has to pump in both sunshine and the Internet.