In order to help Outlook users write emails efficiently on Windows 10 or mobile devices, Microsoft is preparing a new feature called “text prediction”, and it is expected to be used on more platforms eventually. With the help of AI, the text prediction function allows Outlook to gain a Smart Compose email composing experience similar to Google Gmail. As the user enters, the AI will try to understand and give the subsequent word and sentence suggestions.
To experience this feature on Windows 10, you can first start the Outlook desktop application, and then press the Tab key to select the suggested text.
If you don’t want to use the recommended word, you can ignore the suggestion and continue typing. On devices with touch-enabled, you can also swipe up to select words for the smart association.
It is reported that the Outlook text prediction function can give common suggestions (currently only supports English) to save users’ email composing time and reduce spelling and grammatical errors.
Perhaps confident enough, Microsoft also plans to enable this feature by default. But if you don’t think it is necessary, you can turn it off again in Outlook Application Settings -> Mail Options.
If you are using an Android/iOS mobile device, you will soon be able to re-enable Microsoft’s new AI function in the Outlook app.
Microsoft stated in an announcement on the Microsoft 365 administrator portal that it plans to start deploying new features in early January and is expected to be officially completed by late February 2021.
