Microsoft Puts More Ads in the Outlook App, Makes Them Look Like Emails

Anyone who uses the Outlook app for email is seeing more ads, and frustratingly, Microsoft made them look like emails.

As The Verge reports(Opens in a new window), Microsoft has been increasing the number of ads free users of the Outlook app see for a few months now. You can enable “Focused Inbox” to limit the ads shown, but there will still be an “Other” tab for the email Microsoft didn’t deem important enough to make it into the focused list. Either way, you will see more ads.

More ads is frustrating, but Microsoft also designed them to look very much like emails. With the exception of a small “Ad” tag, you’d be forgiven for clicking on them thinking you’re going to read a legitimate email. If you do open one, it uses the in-app browser to display the ad content.

Of course, these ads will never end up in a spam folder, and swiping to remove them only does so temporarily. Some Outlook users, such as Nick Smith(Opens in a new window), are particularly annoyed about this.

Microsoft does offer a way to avoid the ads, but as you’ve probably guessed, it involves spending money. A Microsoft 365 subscription will remove the ads from the Outlook app on Android or iOS. A Personal subscription costs $69.99 per year(Opens in a new window) and includes access to Microsoft Office apps, a number of premium features for Outlook, and 1TB of cloud storage. A Family plan is $99.99 and offers the same for up to six people.