Microsoft Outlook makes it much harder for users of the free version to avoid ads

Microsoft is ramping up ads in its Outlook mobile email client, and free users are seeing more email-like ads at the top of their inboxes than ever before.

• What is happening? Microsoft has confirmed that it is now adding more ads to its Outlook email client for iPhone [ App Store link ] and Android. Not only is it much harder for free users not to see ads, but the fact that these things look like regular email messages is useless!
• Why care? People hate online ads. If you are a free user, most of the ads in Outlook can be avoided with the Focused Inbox feature. But once you switch Inbox mode, email-like ads will appear at the top of your inbox.
• What to do? If you regularly use Outlook as a free user and don’t want to see any more ads in your inbox, we fear that the only way to avoid ads in Outlook is to pay for a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Free users see much more Microsoft Outlook ads

Many free clients have complained about annoying ads appearing at the top of every inbox mode in Outlook, including your regular inbox and the one labeled “Other”.

Not only that, these annoying ads look almost exactly like normal emails, making it much more difficult to distinguish real messages from advertisements and spam. Worse, if you swipe to remove the ad, Microsoft will re-insert it at the top of your message list.

Microsoft confirmed the change in a statement to The Verge:

Free Outlook users see ads in their inbox, and they can turn on the Focused Inbox feature if they only want to see ads in their Others folder.

The target mailbox is not ad-free, but shows fewer ads so far.

What if I’m a free user who doesn’t like using the Sorted Inbox feature at all? In this case, I would see even more ads in my other mailboxes. You receive a message. Want to get rid of ads? Upgrade to a Microsoft 365 subscription!

@Outlook iOS app is now showing me ads that look like email, get the hell out of here @Microsoft pic.twitter.com/o6dSIY85Yt

— Nick Smith (@yonicksmith) August 16, 2022

What is Microsoft 365 and how much does it cost?

Microsoft 365 is a way to pay for the use of Office apps with a monthly or annual subscription. Microsoft 365 subscriptions, formerly known as Office 365, are available for personal and commercial use.

One subscription ($10/month or $100/year) lets you use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, One Note, and Teams on your desktop, laptop, phone, or tablet. Read: How to Use Focus Modes on Your iPhone

The subscription also includes one terabyte of OneDrive storage and, importantly, ensures that you can use your Outlook email and calendar without ads.

Microsoft 365 works with iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Android, and Windows. You can compare all Microsoft 365 plans and certain perks on the Microsoft website.