Outlook users may notice one glaring problem with the service - its lack of support for IMAP. Users who check email via a Web browser may never notice the lack of IMAP support, but those who rely on a mobile client might suffer. In a question and answer session with Gizmodo, an Outlook.com engineer addressed the future of Outlook and IMAP.

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According to the engineer, the IMAP protocol is old and only supports syncing emails. The preferred protocol for Microsoft is Exchange Activesync, which is capable of synchronizing emails, contacts, and calendars. He did mention that IMAP support might make it to Outlook.com in the future.

Almost all email clients support IMAP, while fewer offer support for EAS, so users of these platforms may face a challenge. Since POP3 is not an option, a continued lack of Outlook support for IMAP could risk pushing users to alternatives like GMail.

Mac users could be in for an Outlook.com client in the near future. The Outlook.com engineer also told Gizmodo that the team knows the support for Mac users' platform of choice needs improvement, and promised that the team is working on it.

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