Microsoft announces plans to discontinue the popular Sunrise Calendar app

Sunrise Calendar is heading off into the sunset. Microsoft recently announced that the popular app will soon be discontinued as the company will focus its efforts on improving the calendar functionality of Outlook for the iPhone and iPad.

In a larger push onto mobile devices, Microsoft purchased Sunrise Calendar earlier this year for around $100 million. The Sunrise app will remain on the App Store, for now, while other new features are added into Outlook. When the integration is complete, the app will disappear.

That’s disappointing for fans of Sunrise, but it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise as Microsoft obviously wants to streamline its mobile offerings and make Outlook the place to go for both email and scheduling.

Speaking of Outlook, Microsoft has unveiled a new update featuring welcomed changes for iPad and iPhone users. Microsoft focused on tweaking UI elements and navigation around the app. Javier Soltero, corporate vice president for the Outlook team, gave one example of the changes in a recent blog post:

For example, the message list on Outlook now clearly calls out event invitations. The “event” icon makes it easy to identify events at a glance, by showing the details of the proposed event with a clear action to RSVP right from your inbox. In addition, the “flag” and “attachment” icons are more prominently displayed on the right side of the message list, mirroring what Outlook users are used to on Windows. And when you’re scrolling down on your message list while triaging email, pressing the “Mail” navigation button pops you back to the top of your inbox.

On the calendar side, the navigation icon shows today’s date while the Today button and day picker have also been improved.

A look at Outlook’s revamped calendar.

When looking at specific calendar events, all of the important details – like date, duration, and location – are located near the top. You can also quickly and easily view event attendees and their response to the invitation.

Microsoft Outlook is a universal app designed for the iPhone/iPod touch and iPad/iPad mini. It can be downloaded now on the App Store for free.

Apple Watch users can also take advantage of a nice app for the wearable device. With the update, the app is completely native and runs directly from the watch.

Microsoft has also added a number of complications for a watch face including your next appointment or the number of emails in your inbox. Also, all recent emails – whether read or unread – are easily accessible from the watch.

Here’s an interactive preview from our sister site WatchAware.

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