We have all been there: you are about to close your laptop, or leave the office, when your handset vibrates. One more email! You can stop and dig it out, disrupting your flow for the millionth time that day. Or, using Outlook for iOS, you can now query to Cortana to read out loud everything in your inbox. Microsoft claims this “voice-forward” function was developed for general multitasking and commuting. You can respond with your voice and employ the on-screen UI—which seems a bit similar to podcast or music player—to flag, pause, and archive messages.
The function, which Microsoft is dubbing as Play My Emails, will also provide a “masculine” option to default voice option of Cortana. (It is not clear when and if this will be provided on other platforms.) And, beginning next month, Outlook will launch a Cortana-based “briefing” mail that sums up your meetings and any files you will require that day.
On a related note, the support for Dark Mode by Microsoft in Office was in fact only the beginning of a much bigger (and darker) fashion. The firm earlier began rolling out Dark Mode to its Outlook mobile applications on Android as well as iOS, not to forget Office.com. There is not much mystery to how it functions—surprise, it is darker—but it must go a long way toward lessening strain on eye when you are checking mail on the bus home or finishing a late night project. It might increase battery life on hardware with OLED displays.
There is a lot more arriving. Dark Mode will be accessible in Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and a series of other mobile apps by Microsoft on iPadOS and iOS 13. Plans are also in progress to bring it to Planner and OneDrive on the web.