Microsoft and Google both run two of the most widely used email services, Outlook.com and Gmail. It obviously won’t come as a surprise to see one try to poach users from the other. Redmond has developed a new tool to entice existing Gmail users to make the switch over to its email service. Thanks to the recent addition of IMAP support to Outlook.com, the tool is much better than previous import features. Not only will it import all email from the Gmail account, it will also import labels with their proper structures and let users access existing Gmail contacts and even Google Talk from inside Outlook.com.
Only the most recent emails are imported first, with the rest being imported shortly after that. The import procedure is significantly better than before, the POP3 based feature often failed to import emails with their labels and read status, which meant that users had to sort things out manually after they had imported all emails. Users will also be able to set their Gmail address as a “send-only” account, so they will have the option to send emails through their @gmail addresses from within Outlook.com. If you’re willing to make the switch now, keep in mind that the tool’s roll out is going to take a couple of weeks, so its possible that you might not have access at this very moment.
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