Well, now it seems that Microsoft has decided to get more aggressive in showing ads for some Android and iOS users of the platform. The change was first spotted and tweeted by @yonicksmith (via The Verge), and it seems that ads are now shown in the “Focused” tab inside Outlook.
Previously, Microsoft showed ads for free users in the “Other” tab (the “Focused” filter was supposed to show only important mails), and now things have changed. The only way to get rid of these ads in your “Focused” tab is to get a Microsoft Office 365 subscription.
A spokesperson from Microsoft confirmed the change in a statement sent to our colleagues from The Verge, and the real problem here is that the ads in Outlook look (sorry for the tongue twister) awfully like real emails.
Nobody likes ads, and we get that there’s no such thing as a free lunch but maybe Microsoft should make these more clearly labeled and not so frequent. By the way, iOS and Android Outlook users should start seeing more ads in the following days, as the change is already rolling out.
