New Outlook Takes 10 Seconds to Open Emails

The new Outlook for Windows has a significant performance issue when handling notifications. Clicking a notification for a new email takes around 10 seconds to open the specific email, while Outlook Classic does it almost instantly. This problem arises because the new Outlook is built on WebView2, a Chromium-based rendering engine, which requires a browser-like process chain to initialize or resume its web layer, authenticate, load the relevant mail thread, and render it.

What happened

Microsoft's new Outlook has been found to have a notification problem that is hard to ignore. When a new email arrives in Windows 11, a notification banner appears, and clicking it is supposed to take the user straight to that message. However, the new Outlook opens the app, loads the full inbox, and then takes around 10 seconds before the specific email from the notification shows up on screen. In contrast, Outlook Classic opens the specific email almost instantly.

The new Outlook is built on Microsoft Edge's WebView2 runtime, which is a Chromium-based rendering engine. Every time the user interacts with the app, including clicking a notification, a browser-like process chain has to do the work. The app has to initialize or resume its web layer, authenticate, load the relevant mail thread, and render it, all through that web engine.

Why it matters

The slow performance of the new Outlook matters because it affects the user experience. The 10-second delay when opening emails from notifications can be frustrating, especially when compared to the instant response of Outlook Classic. This issue may lead to user dissatisfaction and potentially drive them to seek alternative email clients.

How to think about it

When evaluating the new Outlook, consider the trade-offs between its web-based architecture and the potential performance issues. While the new Outlook may offer some benefits, such as improved launch times, its slow performance when handling notifications is a significant drawback. Users should weigh the importance of instant email access against the potential benefits of the new Outlook.

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