Microsoft’s New Outlook Still Lags Behind Outlook Classic in Notification Performance

Microsoft has spent the past few years positioning the new Outlook for Windows as the future of email on the platform. The app has received several improvements since its debut, including faster startup times, better offline support, and new features aimed at both consumers and enterprise users. However, one area continues to lag behind Outlook Classic: notification performance.

According to testing highlighted by Windows Latest, the new Outlook can take significantly longer to open emails from notifications compared to the classic desktop version. Users who click a notification expecting immediate access to a message may instead face a noticeable delay before the email appears on screen.

Opening Emails From Notifications Can Take Around 10 Seconds

The issue becomes apparent when users click a desktop notification for a newly received email. Instead of opening the selected message immediately, the new Outlook first launches the application, loads the inbox interface, and only then navigates to the email itself.

In testing, this process took roughly 10 seconds. By comparison, Outlook Classic opened the same email almost instantly from the notification.

Interestingly, manually opening the new Outlook and selecting the message can sometimes be faster than relying on the notification itself. This suggests the bottleneck is not necessarily startup performance but rather the way notification actions are handled.

WebView2 May Be Behind the Delay

One possible explanation is the application’s underlying architecture. The new Outlook relies heavily on Microsoft’s WebView2 technology, which allows developers to build desktop experiences using web technologies.

While WebView2 offers development flexibility and faster feature deployment, it has also been criticized for performance limitations in certain scenarios. The notification delay observed in Outlook appears consistent with some of the responsiveness challenges associated with web-based applications.

Microsoft has increasingly emphasized native Windows experiences in recent years, particularly through WinUI development. A more native implementation could potentially reduce some of the latency users experience when interacting with notifications. In fact, a new Microsoft team aims for 100% native Windows apps and is ditching the WebView approach, highlighting the company’s growing focus on native performance.

Microsoft Continues to Invest in New Outlook

Despite these shortcomings, Microsoft remains committed to the new Outlook. The company recently delayed its enterprise migration timeline, pushing broader adoption plans to March 2027. The move gives organizations additional time to transition from Outlook Classic while Microsoft continues addressing missing features and usability concerns.

The new Outlook has improved substantially since its initial release. Startup times are now much closer to Outlook Classic, and Microsoft has worked to address several offline functionality limitations.

Additional features currently in development include Unified Inbox support, improved mail merge capabilities, expanded .PST file support, continued offline experience enhancements, and additional enterprise-focused improvements.

Microsoft has repeatedly described the new Outlook as the future default email client for Windows, signaling that long-term investment will continue. The company has also been actively encouraging adoption and recently showcased 15 key features designed to persuade users to switch from the classic experience.

Outlook Classic Remains the Better Choice for Power Users

For users who depend on fast notification handling, Outlook Classic still offers a superior experience. The mature desktop client remains highly responsive when opening messages directly from notifications and avoids many of the delays seen in the newer application.

The good news for existing users is that Outlook Classic is not disappearing anytime soon. Microsoft plans to support the classic client until at least April 2029, giving users several more years to choose the experience that works best for them.

While the new Outlook continues to gain features and improve performance, notification responsiveness remains one area where the classic version still holds a clear advantage.