This isn’t news per se, just a reminder that the Windows Mail, Calendar, and People apps will no longer be supported after December 31.
“Support for Windows Mail, Calendar, and People will end on December 31, 2024,”
the Microsoft Support website explains. “We’re currently in the process of moving existing users to the new Outlook for Windows. After December 31, 2024, users will no longer be able to send and receive email using Windows Mail and Calendar. Any local emails, calendar events, and contacts stored in Mail, Calendar, and People will remain exportable.”
Microsoft hasn’t updated the Mail, Calendar, and People apps in a meaningful way in years–the latter isn’t even directly available in Windows 11–and while Calendar was a serviceable app, Mail was a a travesty of user interface and accessibility issues. Indeed, it served as a living example of why the app platform that was used to create it was never going to be successful.
Despite being a marked improvement, the replacement for these apps–the “new” Outlook–is controversial in the community for various flaws and missing features. This new Outlook will eventually replace the classic Outlook app in the Microsoft 365 desktop app suite (Office) too, but the bar is higher there than it is for Windows Mail, Calendar, and People. It will be several years before Outlook old-timers have to deal with that transition.
Though Mail, Calendar, and People are being replaced by the new Outlook, users with data in the old apps can use a toggle switch in Outlook to go back to the old apps and export that data.
Microsoft explains how in a separate support article.
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