Outlook 2016 for Mac adds support for Google Calendar and Contacts

Today, Outlook 2016 for Mac is adding support for Google Calendar and Contacts—available first to our Office Insider Fast community. We’re excited to be delivering on these highly-requested features for Mac users and matching our Outlook apps for iOS and Android, providing Google Accounts with a more powerful way to stay in control of the day ahead.

While today marks the beginning of this rollout, we need your help to test drive and provide feedback on the experience. We will be closely managing the rollout to Insiders, expanding availability over the next several weeks, before becoming broadly available to Office 365 customers later this year.

Note: These improvements will become available to those who have Office 365 plans that include Office applications.

More than just email

Outlook for Mac has long supported connecting to and managing your Gmail. With these updates, Outlook will now also sync your Google Calendars and Contacts. The experience will be very similar to what you are familiar with in Outlook today, with support for all the core actions—such as add, delete, edit time and location. All changes will update back and forth with Gmail or Outlook for iOS and Android, so everything is in sync across all your devices.

Bringing the best features of Outlook to your Gmail account

Up to now, many of Outlook’s best and most advanced email features have only been available to those with an Outlook.com, Office 365 or Exchange email address. With these updates, you will also be able to take advantage of several of Outlook’s advanced features with your Gmail account, including Focused Inbox and richer experiences for travel reservations and package deliveries. Additional advanced features will become available as we roll these updates out more broadly.

How to get started

Outlook 2016 for Mac users who are part of the Office Insider Fast program will be the first to try this new feature. To become an Insider, simply open up Outlook, click Help > Check for Updates and then follow the directions found here.

Not all Insiders will see the new Google Account experience right away. We will closely monitor feedback and expand the rollout over the next few weeks. Outlook will notify you when this feature becomes available, with a prompt asking you to add your Google Account. If you have an existing Google Account connected to Outlook, you can remove it after setting up the new experience.

If you ignore the initial prompt, you can add a Google Account at a later time by going to Tools > Accounts.

We are still fine-tuning the Google Account experience in Outlook for Mac and will provide regular updates to Insiders before releasing the features more broadly.

—The Outlook team