Microsoft’s Garage group has released Send, a quick and easy iOS app for sending SMS-like short emails via Office 365 and school email accounts. No subject lines, no signatures, it’s essentially an instant messaging program which happens to communicate via email.
The app aims to keep any operating hassles to a minimum. Office 365 integration gives you immediate access to your Outlook contacts, and sending messages is as easy as selecting one and entering your text.
The recipient will see the message in Send, if they’re using it, but it’ll also arrive as an email and they can reply using their regular email client.
A new take on Outlook’s Inbox
Similarly, you can carry on the conversation in Send, if you like, but your messages are also synced with Outlook, so you can also reply there if it’s more convenient. Either way, Outlook will have a complete history of the conversation, both full emails and quick Send messages, which is more convenient than spreading it around several applications.
This initial release of Microsoft Send is free for iOS users in the US and Canada who have Office 365 business and school email accounts. That seems restrictive to us, but the official blog post on the release says “we expect to make the app more broadly available in the coming months”. One to watch, maybe.
