Why does Outlook no longer show the original URL on hovering over a link in an email message?

4 months in and people are still experiencing this issue.

Microsoft Dev's need to up their substandard game, this is bordering on pathetic.

Having reported other issues with Outlook app recently, and having participated in resolution/testing, yeilding nothing but a closed ticket and no fix on those issues either, I have zero faith in this being fixed any time this year..... or next.

Probably about time to pass this on to those with enough influence to take Microsoft to task on this, e.g security channel owners and commentators, who may be able to get some pressure applied... because, clearly, "customers security" at Microsoft has taken a back seat on this App.

I get phishing and ransomware, trojans and all manner of unwanted nasties in emails, regularly, and because of this critical issue, I have no way to even glance at a URL to authenticate... no URLs at all in my current "build" of Outlook... OR worse., no way to tell if "junked" items are junked correctly because I can't see URLs.... leading to steps the average user will not know how to accomplish to varify legitimacy...

Disgusting shonky substandard rubbish.

Meanwhile my paid version of Outlook365 works as intended. Just not on my phone,.... thanks Microsoft. Kappa.

Yes, I too am very upset that Microsoft nolonger displays the URL of a hyperlink when hovering over it in the reading pane of Outlook (new Outlook). This is a huge step backwards for computer safety against malicious links.!

I can't understand why Microsoft would do this while they claim to be bolstering computer safety !

I also just noticed that in the new Outlook client on Windows 11. It's a big security issue! Million of people around the world are trained to check the URL first that pops up before they click on a link in their E-Mail...

Interesting indeed how we got different responses! Let's hope your two are in fact what's happening, in that they acknowledge that it's an issue that they're trying to sort. Thanks for submitting and letting us know.

The response you got sounds rather like it came from an AI, and the response to @SMiller_920 seems more like a real person wrote it. Fingers crossed MS really are investigating the problem.

It does seem true that "some" people are experiencing the problem. My own experience of it made me open this thread, but the problem came and went for me, and hasn't been back (yet).

Others are obviously still seeing it, though, even in the latest versions of Outlook and New Outlook, so the underlying cause hasn't been fixed yet.

New Outlook isn't anywhere near ready to be rolled out. Quite apart from the link display issue, which is a real show-stopper for those experiencing it (and to admins and support staff!), it's still missing far too many of "classic" Outlook's important functions, in my opinion. For example, being able even to read PST files isn't planned until some time next year, according to the MS 365 timeline.

In addition to this, I have another symptom of the poor QC checks on realease, related to links in email:

For some months now I've had another issue with links in Outlook (new).

That, whenever I open emails from Indeed or LinkedIn, I get 2 tabs opening in my browser. Every single time.

Only happens on this "new" version of Outook app.

Not when I switch it back to the "classic".

Never happens in my Office 365 desktop version of Outlook, from the same emails.

Happens in any web browser I set as "default". ( mention this because an old thread suggests this is the root cause).

Only seems to affect LinkedIn and Indeed email alerts (I haven't looked for other platform/email alerts to expand on this sample).

Opened a thread about it today because I'm bored with having to close 1 of 2 tabs for every time I click a link in these emails.

Dev team really need to be performing real-world testing as these important/irritating issues keep getting published to live software.

AS for this OP's thread (I've responded to this before) - I too am now noticing that sometimes Outlook (New) does show links on hover, and other times it doesn't.... a few days ago I saw that they were showing again.... hover over links, popup shows the real link in full...

Today > Nope. Not working again. I feel like the App is gaslighting us lol.

I already disabled their smartscreen functionality because it is useless right now > AND..... I get nothing on hover, so NO idea what I would be clicking on at all.

But, in "Outlook 365" - same/all emails > I see the full URL upon hover... without this nonsense feature enabled anywhere...

Fingers crossed that they "Soon TM" patch out the "lets hide links to bambooze customers and reduce security" iteration in current circulation.