Why is the "play my emails" feature in outlook being retired in June 2024? I use it for 2 hours everyday, and it makes me much more efficient.

I echo all the sentiments of the other users here. Please ensure there is a way to retain the functionality of listening to emails on our phones. This was a game changer for me and finally allowed me to feel up to date and on top of all my emails at work.

Just to amplify some of the comments made, while I am not sure whether this feature started with the right “use case”, it should be very apparent that the real benefit of this service was in being able to automate the reading of emails. I found it just as game changing as I am sure others have already stated, and I think that MSFT can look to leverage this feature in a major way given its so desperately needed ….if in some way that feature of having emails read aloud (with a friendly voice and basic pause, rewind, fwd features) is available in the Microsoft ecosystem ….I am sure that MILLIONS would love to know!

#theresamarketforthis

An very interested user

Hello Nathan McCarty,

Thanks for having patience!

As you know that Cortana voice assistance in Windows as a standalone app was retired in the spring of 2023. Additionally, Cortana in Teams mobile, Microsoft Teams display, Microsoft Teams Rooms, Outlook mobile, and Microsoft 365 mobile was retired in the fall of 2023. In June of 2024, we will be retiring the Play My Emails feature in Outlook mobile.

But it is a good news that there is a new feature in Windows 11 that lets you control your PC and write text using your voice. You can use voice commands to read and write emails. We are excited to keep innovating and using AI to help you work smarter and faster. We hope you enjoy the new ways to use AI to save time and focus on what matters most to you.

Please be advised that these features adding or updates, such decisions are taken by the product team. In the meantime, I do apologize for the inconvenience this may cause and I will pass along your feedback to the appropriate team for consideration in future updates.

If you find my information useful, please help me vote on it. With your vote, other users looking for the same details on this community site can easily find this thread.

Thank you for choosing the MS community.

We look forward to hearing back and having a great day ahead!

Sincerely

Md Ashabul Haque | Microsoft Community Moderator

We need a tool to read emails in the Outlook MOBILE app, not on desktop computers. I have used the read. My email features every day for over a year. And it it was invaluable to me to keep up and stay organized, even when I had to listen in the car. Please create a mobile tool!! If I'm sitting at a computer, obviously I just READ emails and the out-loud function is not useful.

Play my emails was a serious lifesaver for me and I am also upset about the removal of the feature. I don't use the dictation feature on my competer, but I guess ill try the new AI feature. To supplement the phone use I downloaded an app called speaking email so far I like it! I can also forward emails to people in my contacts and I can make the robot voice speak much faster!

It also skips email signature and can read attachments!