Ten new reasons to love Hotmail

1. Keep only the latest message from any sender with Schedule cleanup

Today’s inboxes can get cluttered with lots of emails from the same sender, like newsletters or event calendars. Hotmail can automatically manage these messages by keeping only the latest email from a given sender. It’s easy—just select the sender, then choose Schedule cleanup on the Sweep menu, and then select “Only keep the latest message from this sender.” Hotmail will immediately delete all but the latest email from that sender, and each time a new message arrives from this sender, the older message will be deleted.

2. Delete messages as they get old with Schedule cleanup

With other kinds of email, like daily deals and offers, you might want to keep several messages, but only for a few days. Hotmail can automatically clean these up, too, by deleting or moving these messages to a folder after a set amount of time. Just select a set of messages, then choose Schedule cleanup on the Sweep menu, and then select either Delete or Move all messages older than 3, 10, 30, or 60 days. Hotmail will take care of the rest automatically.

3. One-click Unsubscribe

Have you gotten yourself on a mailing list you no longer need? It happens to all of us – you sign up to some web site, and the next thing you know, you’re getting a bunch of newsletters that you don’t really want. With Hotmail, unsubscribing from unwanted newsletters has never been easier. We’ve combined Unsubscribe with the power of Sweep, so unwanted messages are removed from your inbox instantly and permanently with One-click Unsubscribe. Just select (or open) a newsletter, and then choose Unsubscribe on the Sweep menu. Hotmail takes care of all the details like telling the sender to take you off their list, setting up a rule to block messages from that sender, and even cleaning up your inbox if you want—all  in one easy step.

4. Flags done right

We all get important email that we need to get back to later. Now, Hotmail makes it easy, by letting you instantly flag important messages and pinning those messages to the top of your inbox. Those messages stay pinned even when new email arrives, so you never lose track of that email gift card, your flight itinerary, or other important messages. You can even set up rules to automatically flag messages from specific senders.


Here’s a video showing you how to use flags:

5. PhotoMail and DocMail—improved with preview and inline editing

Millions of people share photos through email. Now, Hotmail gives you a beautiful photo album every time you send photos, and with our new release, you get to see that album as you compose your mail. You can even edit the title of your album right inline and add and remove photos before sending.

6. Send files using SkyDrive

Let’s face it, attachments can be a hassle. If the files are too big, or if you attach too many, you might hit sending limits. Or, even worse, the people to whom you’re sending the files might hit limits with their email system, and never receive what you’re sending. That’s why we built SkyDrive right into Hotmail. Now, whenever you send a file, photo or document, you can choose to have that file stored on SkyDrive instead of sending it as an attachment. Using SkyDrive means that everyone will receive the files without any problems, and you no longer have to worry about attachment limits. It’s so easy to use SkyDrive that you can even make it the default for sending all attachments.

7. Forgotten attachment detector

Speaking of attachments, have you ever sent an email to someone meaning to include a file or photo, but forgot to attach it? Hotmail now includes a new Forgotten Attachment Detector that reminds you to attach a file when there are phrases like “see attachments” in an email with no attachments. We’re still tweaking how it works, but right now our detector will catch about 75% of forgotten attachments.

8. Instant Actions that you can customize

We’ve spent a lot of time studying how people use their inbox, and as part of that, we know that certain actions occur very frequently. We’ve taken several common actions—delete, flag, and mark as read/unread—and made them instantly accessible in just one click with our new Instant Actions. But we went one step further. The new Hotmail lets you customize your own Instant Actions so that your inbox works the way you want. You can set up Instant Actions to categorize messages, sweep messages, mark messages as junk or even move messages to a folder, making things like one-click archive a snap.

9. Folder management

We heard from our customers that they wanted more from our folders and subfolders. That’s why we made sure creating and managing folders is easier than ever before. Now, you can create new folders inline and drag one folder into another to create a nested hierarchy. You can also move messages to a folder using drag and drop. And the new right-click menu gives you fast, easy access to common folder operations:

10. Hotmail for Android phones

If you’re using an Android phone, you can now easily access your Hotmail account with the official Hotmail Android app. The app has full EAS support to sync all of your email, calendar, and contacts. It supports multiple Hotmail accounts on the same device and displays new mail notifications on the Home screen. The app has been downloaded by over two million Android users. It can be installed by visiting the Android Market and searching for Microsoft Hotmail, or just by clicking here. Best of all, it’s free!

Keep the feedback coming – this week, we’re on Twitter

We hope you enjoy the latest release. Let us know what you think—we’d love to hear your feedback. We will be hosting a live Twitter Q&A on the new Hotmail features tomorrow, December 16th, on Twitter from 12:30PM until to 1:30PM, Pacific Time.  Use the hashtag #HotmailQnA in your question and follow us (@Hotmail) to participate in the conversation.
And, as always, thank you for using Hotmail.
Dick Craddock
Group Program Manager, Hotmail