Outlook just gained a feature on Android that Gmail desperately needs

Summary

• Microsoft Outlook for Android now has a minimize button for email drafts, solving a long-standing annoyance.
• The minimize feature allows users to keep a draft open while still navigating Outlook, making the app more multitasking-friendly.
• Outlook's new feature is a welcome change compared to Gmail's lack of similar functionality, offering an improved user experience.

One of the most frustrating things about drafting an email in Gmail on Android is that you can't leave the draft without closing it. It's an annoyance that's been around for ages, and Microsoft just recently solved the issue for Outlook, available for beta users on 4.2447.0 or later, with the feature starting to roll out to production (stable) users.

The solution is relatively simple: it's a minimize button for email drafts. This way, you don't have to leave a draft to track down a piece of information from the app; the draft is pinned to the screen when minimized, leaving the rest of Outlook navigable, and thus, the app is way more multi-tasking friendly with this one simple change.

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Microsoft announces a minimize button for email drafts in Outlook for Android

Simple, but a very welcome change

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft recently published a blog post on its Tech Community blog detailing the new minimize feature rolling out to Outlook on Android. Essentially, when you open a draft in Outlook, there will be a minimize button in the top right corner that can unfocus the draft while minimizing it to a button located at the bottom center of the screen, leaving the rest of the screen space available for navigating the Outlook app, say if you need to dip into your Outlook Calendar to find a date to share in your email draft.

Personally, one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to using the Outlook competitor Gmail is that there is no way to navigate the app without leaving a draft, so to see a minimize button come to Outlook has indeed piqued my interest when Android's default email app is missing the convenience. It's a long-running problem, which is why Microsoft's news of a minimize draft feature is very welcome.

So, if you, too, are sick of your email app making it difficult to multitask within the app, then you may want to give Outlook a try, especially now that its email draft minimize feature is rolling out. It may take a little time for everyone to see the update land in Outlook, as it's only just starting to roll out to production, but if you'd like to install the app in preparation for the new feature, just click the download button in the widget below to jump to Outlook's Play Store listing.