Turn On/Off Focused Inbox in Outlook Client and Mobile Devices

Overview

Focused Inbox intelligently pre-sorts your email so you can focus on what matters. It places your most important emails in Focused and the rest in Other. Focused Inbox works across all your email accounts, personal and professional.

To create an inbox that "feels right" to you, the system takes into account emails and contacts with whom you interact, and filters out noisy sources like automatically generated or bulk email. The more you use it, the better it gets.

For more information: Focused Inbox for Outlook - Microsoft Support

Outlook Windows Client

Turn Focused Inbox on or off in new Outlook

  1. Open new Outlook. Screenshot of Settings > Mail > Layout > Focused Inbox

  2. Select View > View Settings Settings icon.

  3. In Mail > Layout, select the account you want to apply the settings to.

    • To turn it on - Select the option Sort messages into Focused and Other.

    • To turn it off - Select the option Don't sort my messages.

  4. Select Save if you made any changes.

    When Focused Inbox is turned on, Focused and Other tabs display at the top of your mailbox. You’ll be informed about email flowing to Other, and you can switch between tabs any time to take a quick look.

Change how your messages get organized in new Outlook

  1. From your inbox, select the Focused or Other tab, and then right-click the message you want to move.

  2. To move a message from Focused to Other: Select Move > Move to Other inbox. Select Always move to Other inbox if you want all future messages from the sender to be delivered to the Other tab.

    To move a single message from Other to Focused: Select Move > Move to Focused inbox. Select Always move to Focused inbox if you want all future messages from the sender to be delivered to the Focused tab.

Outlook for Mac

Turn Focused Inbox on or off in Outlook for Mac

  1. Open Outlook for Mac.

  2. On the View tab, depending on if you want to turn in on or off, select Turn on Focused Inbox or Turn off Focused Inbox.

    When it's on, the Focused and Other tabs will appear at the top of your inbox. You’ll be informed about email flowing to Other, and you can switch between tabs any time to take a quick look.

Change how your messages are organized

  1. From your inbox, select the Focused tab, and then select the message you want to move.

  2. To move messages to Other:    Select Message > Move to Other if you want only the selected message moved. Select Message > Always Move to Other if you want all future messages from the sender to be delivered to the Other tab.

    To move messages to Focused:    Select Message >Move to Focused if you want only the selected message moved. Select Message > Always Move to Focused if you want all future messages from the sender to be delivered to the Focused tab.

Outlook for Mobile Devices

Reclassify emails between Focused and Other

  1. Open an email, from the header tap the More options icon.

  2. From the list select Move to Focused inbox/Other.

Turn Focused inbox on or off

  1. From the message list, swipe left or tap Home or your user icon to reveal the menu, and then select Settings  > Mail.

  2. Set the Focused Inbox toggle to on or off.

Change notification and badge settings

To change your notifications settings from or to Focused Inbox, go to Settings, tap Notifications, and make your selections from the options.

To change whether your badge count is synced to Focused Inbox, go to Settings and tap on Badge count.

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