Microsoft Updates Outlook for Android & iOS with More Security Controls

Microsoft has just announced its Outlook application for Android and iOS platforms has just received a major update that brings some extra security features for Office 365 users.

With the latest version of Outlook, IT administrators will be able to configure new access scenarios to sign in to Office 365 and to better control and manage the application on mobile devices in their organization.

That's because Outlook now makes use of Active Directory Authentication Library (ADAL)-based authentication for Exchange Online mailboxes in Office 365, replacing the previously used basic authentication method.

With ADAL-based sign in, users will be able to enable OAuth for Office 365 accounts, thus providing Outlook with a more secure method to access email without requiring access to the user's credentials.
An easier, more secure sign in experience for users

Thanks to the new changes implemented in the latest update, at sign in, the users authenticates directly with Office 365 and receives an access token in return, which will grant Outlook access to mailbox.

Furthermore, Microsoft announced that Outlook now supports multi-factor authentication for Office 365. This will greatly help secure the user sign-in for cloud services beyond just a single password.

When multi-factor authentication is enabled, users will be required to acknowledge a phone call, text message, or app notification on their smartphones after correctly entering their passwords.

Although these are the only major changes in this update, Microsoft states that more features will be added in the coming months, so stay tuned for more details.

You can now download Microsoft Outlook for Android for free via Google Play Store. The application should be fully compatible with all devices powered by Android 4.0 and up.

For iOS users, the application can be downloaded for free via App Store. It should run smoothly on all devices running iOS 8.0 or later.