If you're setting up the Microsoft 365 suite with the Outlook email client on your new laptop , one of the first things you'll want to do is make a profile. This profile is available for other Outlook users to see, and it includes your name and other information you choose to make visible, which is worth your attention if you're starting a new position or just new to the platform. Your profile also includes an avatar, which is your initials by default. To really personalize your profile, you can add or change your profile picture in Outlook. Let’s dive in and see how to do that.

What’s the profile picture for, anyway?

Microsoft included the profile picture option as a way to personalize your profile and make it clear to others that you are you. In an organizational setting, other folks you work with can click your profile to get more information about you. You can also opt to share your birthday, phone number, or other personal details if you'd like to do so.

To go along with your profile information, it’s nice to have a picture to put a face with a name. That’s where the profile picture comes in, as a way to help people see who they’re communicating with. While this may not appear for everyone, particularly Gmail users, it will show up for most folks using Outlook.

The best way to change your Outlook profile picture

There are several ways to dig through settings and access your profile picture, but by far the easiest is directly through the Outlook web page as follows.

1. In your favorite web browser, go to the Outlook web page, and log in if needed.
2. Click your initials or existing profile picture in the top right corner.
3. In the pop-out window, hover over the image circle to the left of your name and click the camera symbol.
4. Then, you can either drag your picture into the area labeled Drop Zone or click Add a photo to browse your computer’s files.
5. You can zoom or crop your image using the controls provided. Once you're happy with how your profile picture looks, click Save and your new profile photo will begin populating across not just Outlook, but all of your apps which are logged into that Microsoft account.

If you notice the Outlook app on your iPhone or Android device doesn’t show the new profile picture, keep in mind that it can sometimes take as long as 24 hours to update. If you don’t see your profile picture on iOS or Android after a day though, other users have been able to force the update by beginning the process of adding a mail account to the Outlook app. You don’t even have to follow through; apparently, just tapping Add account is all it takes to prompt the app to update its cache.

Other options for Outlook may serve you better

The profile picture in Outlook is a nice touch, but it is a bit limited. Only fellow Outlook users will see it; and sometimes, not even then. What’s worse, many folks have noticed that the new version of Outlook is a considerable downgrade over the legacy app. If you’d rather get more out of your email than less, plenty of other email apps far outshine Microsoft Outlook. But for now, you can move on to further personalizing your Outlook experience.