Many were disappointed when Microsoft announced the demise of the popular Sunrise Calendar app earlier this year, but today there’s some good news.
The company, which acquired Sunrise more than 18 months ago, is now bringing some of the Calendar’s best features to the mobile version of Outlook.
A new update to the Android and iOS Outlook apps will add several new features to the calendar section, including event icons and maps.
Event icons match keywords, so if you enter the word coffee, you should see a coffee cup show up on the event, while the maps feature will look up any address you type in and provide a map which you can tap for directions.
Related: Best calendar apps
Elsewhere, Microsoft has added a dialogue pop-up that appears when you tap an empty time in the calendar, which comes with the date and time already entered.
You’ll also be able to drag the handles up or down to shorten or lengthen the event itself, and any attendees will be notified of the changes.
Also coming soon is the ability to edit recurring meetings from your phone, and it’s also now possible to create a Skype for Business meeting using your handset.
The new features go a long way towards making Outlook’s calendar a worthy companion to the more functional email offering.
In a blog post earlier this year, the Sunrise team promised the new features would make their way to Outlook eventually, and it seems Microsoft is committed to keeping that promise.
The actual Sunrise app was shuttered completely on August 31, so today’s news will be some consolation for those who miss the popular app’s innovative approach.
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Let us know what you think of the new features in the comments.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
