Heard the Rumor about Outlook COM Add-ins Going Away? Now Hear the Rest of the Story.

Yes, you will still have PoliteMail in Outlook.

In January of 2024, Microsoft began rolling out its “New Outlook” version as a toggle inside the Outlook desktop. New Outlook is actually just Outlook online (365) inside of a Windows frame (instead of your browser), but the traditional desktop Outlook software isn’t actually going away anytime soon.

While it’s true the new Outlook only supports “modern” add-ins and not traditional “COM” add-ins, Microsoft’s own documentation confirms Outlook desktop and COM add-in deprecation isn’t slated until 2029 (and will likely slip). 

The very good news is PoliteMail currently offers our traditional COM add-in together with a modern Outlook add-in and a PoliteMail online SaaS (Outlook-less) interface – and you can run all three at the same time.

As an M365 Outlook user you may have noticed the toggle switch at the top right of Outlook offering to “try the New Outlook”, and if you have tried it, you will notice “New Outlook” is the same as the Outlook online or Outlook for the web version (OWA).

Obviously, Microsoft doesn’t want the costs associated with maintaining both desktop software and SaaS software, so they are motivated to move everyone to their SaaS products. In their own documentation Microsoft is referring to the current Outlook desktop as “classic”, and perhaps similar to Coca-Cola’s debacle with the New and the Classic monikers, Microsoft had to quickly reel in the claims it was going to force customers to switch in the near future.

As Microsoft moves towards General Availability for New Outlook, it continues to add and support features to entice customers to begin making the switch. After the opt-out period is over, users will have 12 months to begin migrating before support for Classic Outlook is over.

Users may be wondering what that means if they currently use PoliteMail for email measurement.

Despite industry rumors that Microsoft Outlook is imminently stopping support for COM add-ins, PoliteMail has solutions for our current and future customers with options to ensure emails can still be created, sent, and measured without disruption. No matter how you’re integrated with Outlook, or where you’re headed next, PoliteMail has an integration that adapts to your current and future setup.

According to their published timeline, support for Classic Outlook is scheduled to be deprecated by 2029.

If Microsoft 365 customers switch to New Outlook or Outlook online from their “Classic” Outlook (desktop) anytime before 2029, then PoliteMail already has the modern add-in released and generally available. You can even run both right now!

PoliteMail runs in Outlook desktop, Outlook online and without Outlook.

PoliteMail gives users the flexibility to run PoliteMail as a COM add-in on the popular Windows Outlook desktop, or on a browser-based (non-Outlook) SaaS interface for Windows and Mac users. In addition, users customers can install PoliteMail365, our modern add-in manifest designed to provide PoliteMail’s measurement tools inside all versions of Outlook on both Windows and Mac, including the Outlook desktop, New Outlook, and Outlook online. Best of all, users can switch between all three options to use the tools best suited for the task.

PoliteMail customers wanting to have the modern PoliteMail add-in available when they click the “Try the New Outlook” toggle, please talk to your account manager about getting the modern add-in manifest set-up.

If you are considering PoliteMail as a your organization’s email measurement tool platform, please note that PoliteMail offers the best of all worlds right now, with Outlook and without.