Outlook is getting a host of new contact-management features

As the default email client of the Microsoft 365 productivity suite, Outlook is one of the most popular email apps, particularly among business and enterprise users. A set of new and updated contact-management features will therefore be useful to many users. Let’s take a look at what you need to know.

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Microsoft has announced via a Tech Community blog post that it is rolling several new features that will help us stay on top of our email contact lists.

With our contact lists constantly evolving and people changing email addresses and contact details, over time our set of contacts can become out of date and filled with useless entries.  To address this situation, Microsoft is rolling out a Self-updating contacts feature as well as several other contact-management features such as Contact categories, a New contact editor, and an Upgraded People hub.

The Self-updating contact feature will only work for Enterprise users, with Microsoft describing it like this:

“All the new contacts you add from the people card of a person belonging to your organization will be self-updating contacts. These contacts automatically stay up to date based on the organization directory. Any modifications made to contact details, such as phone number, department designation, etc., will automatically be updated in the contact.”

The new Contact categories feature will replace folders and will work in a similar way to tabs. This means that rather grouping contacts into folders you will be able add search markers to them that will make them easier to find. All existing folders will automatically be migrated to categories. The Content editor will allow you to quickly and efficiently create and edit new contacts and will also include the new features outlined here. The People hub will bring all of these features together into a new home for your Outlook contacts.

In other recent Microsoft news, the company is finally rolling out an update to Windows 10, but you shouldn’t expect any new major feature upgrades.