What in the World Is Focused and Other for Outlook Email for Android Phones

Anonymous
2015-06-15T15:45:34+00:00

I use Outlook 2013 for email with Outlook.com because I can't get Gmail to work with my Office 365 Outlook 2013 application. Setting it up with Outlook.com was easy, but unlike Gmail and Yahoo email, I don't see all of my messages. Outlook for Android has some apparently strange categories called "FOCUSED" and "OTHER". Some of my messages are in "focused" and different messages are in "other". I have to click one category and then the other to see all of my messages. Why?

With Gmail and Yahoo on my Android Phone, when I go to my inbox I see ALL of my messages. But with Outlook they are broken up into 2 different apparently useless categories labeled Focused and Other. I went to settings and selected "All" but that didn't help. Can someone please explain:

  • What does "Focused" mean?
  • What does "Other" mean?
  • Can I get rid of the Focused and Other categories so I can see ALL of my email in one inbo x?

Thanks,

RTBT

***Post moved by the moderator to the appropriate forum category.***

Outlook | Outlook for mobile | Outlook for Android | For business

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2015-06-16T13:48:53+00:00

Hello Ram Kumar, thanks for your help. 

I read the other thread and couldn't agree more with the author. In my opinion, the idea of dividing the inbox into two categories versus having one inbox is pretty dumb. If MS believes there are people who want multiple inboxes, I think they should make it an  OPTION as opposed to the default.

Thankfully, I found the option to turn off Focused and use one inbox. For now it appears to be working as I only have 1 Inbox but I'm afraid those silly, confusing categories of Focused and Other will return.

Ram Kumar, thanks so much for your time and assistance.

RTBT

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Anonymous
2015-06-16T05:27:07+00:00

Hi,

You may refer to the following thread which discusses about similar issue and see if it helps.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook\_com/forum/oemail-oapps/outlook-app-focused-not-wanted/227a4693-3341-43ee-8f4e-583b158fe073

For more information on Focused and Other inbox, refer to the following article.

https://blogs.office.com/2015/01/29/deeper-look-outlook-ios-android/

I look forward to your reply to assist you further.

Thank you.

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Anonymous
2017-05-12T16:32:48+00:00

Hi Cheryl,

Focused Inbox helps you identify what's most important. To turn off Focused Inbox, follow the steps provided on this link.

Please update us with the status. We will be glad to assist you.

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49 additional answers

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-06-02T14:34:44+00:00

    You can turn it off in the settings menu under account settings,

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-05-26T22:29:46+00:00

    This is absolutely unacceptable.  How dare you "sort" my mail for me.  This is tantamount to unauthorized reading my mail.   

    This feature apparently has been available  since 2015  and if I wanted it  I would have asked for it.

    It make sit extremely difficult for me to track my mail from school, work, organizations I am involved with and bill pay receipts/and notifications. My mail was perfectly fine with the way I set it up and so you reversing this is basically telling me your features were a  mistake.  

    PLEASE NOTE:

    Customer service and user friendly replies  are needed and acceptable:   Why give a message that the thread was moved to a more appropriate place and not give a link to that place.  Why not just answer the damn question?

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