Use mailboxes to organize emails on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Use email threads, set up filters, and more in Mail on your on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Use Markup in Mail to add drawings, text, your signature, and more to photos and PDFs. The AOL outage map shows a majority of the reports are coming from the U.S. AOL users were quick to jump online to complain about the service being down. 'Can't receive mail Long Island, New York.

These days, “Outlook” can refer to a A few years ago, webmail was all the rave. Wonder whether it's time to switch back to a desktop email client? Look no further. We show you the merits of a local mail service., a I know that suggesting desktop clients have had their day around the MakeUseOf crowd is like preaching to the choir. Most of us use Gmail, our own mail servers or some form of cloud backup., and an online email service.

And as if that weren’t perplexing enough, you also have to juggle terms like “Hotmail”, “Live Mail”, or “Outlook web app”. We’re here to clear it all up. Which terms should you be using? By the end of this article, you won’t have any doubts anymore. Microsoft’s Email Services Next to Gmail, Hotmail was one of the world’s most recognizable email services. Back in 1997, when Microsoft had bought it from the original creators, Hotmail offered something unique from most email inboxes: independence from ISPs like America OnLine (AOL).

This version was called MSN Hotmail and it no longer exists. Now fast-forward to 2005. Microsoft announced a new set of services and products that were designed to extend the user experience on Windows. This new suite was called Windows Live, which you might recognize in products like the now open source Windows Live Writer and Windows Live Essentials.

Here’s where it starts to get confusing. As part of this movement, Microsoft planned to phase out Hotmail and replace it with a new mail system called Windows Live Mail. But when beta testers complained about the change and how they preferred the Hotmail brand, Microsoft backtracked and settled on Windows Live Hotmail. The Windows Live brand was discontinued in 2012.

Some of the services and products were integrated directly into the Windows operating system (e.g. Apps for Windows 8 and 10), while others were separated and continued on their own (e.g.

Windows Live Search became Bing), while others were simply axed. Around that same time, Microsoft introduced Outlook.com, which was essentially a rebranding of Windows Live Hotmail with an updated user interface and improved features. Many people incorrectly refer to this as Outlook Online. (There’s no such thing.) To add to the confusion, current users were allowed to keep their @hotmail.com email addresses, but new users can no longer create accounts with that domain.

Instead, new users can only create @outlook.com addresses, even though both email addresses use the same email service. So as of right now, Outlook.com is the official name of Microsoft’s email service, which was formerly known as Hotmail and Windows Live Hotmail. Microsoft’s Web Email Clients Back in the golden days, the Hotmail website was the web interface for the Hotmail email service.

There was no brand mismatch. The services were one in the same.

Whenever you said “Hotmail”, people always knew what you were talking about. Unfortunately, things just aren’t that simple anymore.

In 2011, just one year before Microsoft discontinued their Windows Live brand, they introduced Office 365. At the time, Office 365 was geared towards business and corporate users, but over time it was expanded to include regular consumers as well.

In a lot of ways, Office 365 is what Windows Live should’ve been. As part of Microsoft’s push for Office 365, they released a collection of web apps called Outlook on the web (formerly Outlook Web App) in 2015. This suite included four separate tools: Microsoft Outlook Mail, Outlook Calendar, Outlook People, and Outlook Tasks. The important one is Outlook Mail, which is the modern analogue to the Hotmail interface from years ago. Remember how Microsoft rebranded their email service as Outlook.com? Outlook Mail is the front-end while Outlook.com is the back-end.