Microsoft Send 1.2.4 is more an experiment than an app: designed by the company's Garage team, it's an attempt to see what email would be like if you turn it into text messages. The answer is ... text messages. Maybe you like text messages, and for some reason can't send them to someone. If so, then Microsoft Send is for you.
What it really just sets out to do is remove the onerous task of writing a subject heading for your email. That must actually be onerous, because you're in an email conversation right now whose subject is "Re: re: re: re:" and you know someone who never sends any subject heading at all.
These people are bad people. They force you to read the email to see what it's about, and whether you need to do anything. So it's probably effective at getting your message across the first few times, but after that you could write an email about a wolf coming to the village, and nobody would read you.
Microsoft Send has no subject headings. You still have to pick a recipient, and you still have to write your message, but you're saved that entire bothersome subject heading. You're also rather guided to be short. Concise. Brusque, even. You get a Messages-like bubble window in which to write, and you are specifically directed to ask someone a question. That is better than an email that begins with five paragraphs about hoping you're well before it gets to the crunch question "could you put the gun down?", yet the result is terse.
Send a terse message, and you get a terse reply. That might be just what you want, and there are many, many people who loathe emails, so this could be good for them. Only, if you take away everything about a car that makes it different to a bicycle, you end up with another bicycle.
There are also some Microsoftian issues with Send. When you go through the setup, you will spend a time staring at the final screen wondering what to do, because the thing you need to see is the smallest part of the screen. Bold letters tell you to sign in, and a big Next button beckons you. It's just that in between the two is a small, greyed-out example of what a sign-in email address might be -- and that is where you sign in.
Then you have to have Office 365 to use Send, and if you're a user of that then you may know you can sign up with any email address. That includes an iCloud one, or an older @mac.com one. It's really only used for ID, but it's what you sign in with -- unless you want to use Microsoft Send. Then you're told no, it can't work with those accounts. That's fairer than it sounds, as Send has to reach deep into your email account, so it only makes sense that Microsoft can get it to work with, say, its own Outlook accounts better than it can Apple's.
Only, this is an iOS app. That's why this is an experiment: it's an idea, rather than something iOS users can all rush to, and it's an idea that turns email into everything it isn't. You save the subject heading, and Microsoft says you save writing signatures too –--though if you don't like signatures in regular email, then don't have them and if you do, you write them the once and never look at them again.
You can send photos from Microsoft Send, but no other attachments. So, okay, you also save the tedious problem of having to email someone a second time to apologize for not including the attachment. That bit's good. Here's the thing, though. If you can send through Microsoft Send, then you've got network connectivity. That also means that you can use Messages, and since this is only for iOS right now, I guess I'm not sure why you'd want to use anything else.
Microsoft Send 1.2.4 requires an Office 365 account and is
free in the App Store, but at time of writing only for US and Canada, not internationally.
Who is Microsoft Send 1.2.4 for:
Terse Microsoft employees.
Who is Microsoft Send 1.2.4 not for:
Maybe it will find a spot some day, but right now if you hate email you can just carry on using Messages or text, and get more functionality than with Send.
-- William Gallagher (
@WGallagher)
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