On a whim, I decided to try out Outlook to see if it could act as a central hub for my various email accounts, including Gmail and Outlook addresses. However, not long after I started using the service, I decided to switch back to Gmail as my primary email client.

While Outlook does have its benefits (and some may argue that Outlook is better than Gmail), Gmail performs better in certain areas, making it the right choice for me.

Gmail has certain benefits over Outlook

I like Gmail's default filtering better

While I signed up for my first Gmail account nearly two decades ago, the email platform continues to offer certain benefits over an Outlook account. These include its Google Calendar integration and better email filtering.

I now have two Gmail accounts: an older address for spam and gaming accounts, and a newer account I use for more important accounts. Switching between the two is incredibly easy. Gmail also sorts the emails that I receive into sections that make sense. Important emails rarely end up outside of my main inbox view, while promotions and social media updates are relegated to their own tabs that I rarely visit.

However, Outlook offers two primary views: Focused and Other. When I used the Outlook mobile app as my main client, some important emails would end up in the Other view. One of these was an important email that required me to sign a banking mandate within a certain time period and I could've easily missed it had I not seen it earlier when using the Gmail app. Meanwhile, emails that would have gone to my Social or Promotions tabs on Gmail ended up in my main Outlook Focused view.

I also find Gmail more user-friendly because of the seamless syncing between the mobile and web apps. In the case of Outlook, just because you add an email account to the Outlook mobile app doesn't mean it will be added to the desktop or web versions of the email client. You will also need to disconnect the accounts separately if you no longer want to use them.

The Outlook mobile app was significantly delayed for me

I'd receive notifications hours or days later

I could try to get used to Outlook's approach to email filtering and set up additional labels and filters to get my inbox more sorted, but that wouldn't fix another major issue I had using the platform. The mobile app only sends me notifications for new emails every now and then. These notifications are also significantly delayed: sometimes by hours, sometimes by days.

Since I use the Gmail account I linked to Outlook for some of my freelance work, missing emails by days is not an option. This rules it out as an app I can use as a centralized client. But what about using it for my Outlook address?

I tested the responsiveness of the mobile apps by sending myself an email to my newer Gmail address and my Outlook address. I received the push notification from my Gmail account in less than a minute. I waited for the Outlook notification to come through, but it hadn't shown up even after 15 minutes. Another separate email didn't trigger a notification either. It turns out that both emails, from different email addresses, went to the junk folder.

I tried the test again with a more substantive email. I still received the Gmail notification first, but the Outlook email arrived shortly after, along with the notifications for the two previous emails I had sent. This is despite both having been marked as Read by now.

This type of delay and inconsistency with notifications means that Outlook is unfortunately not a viable option for me.

I've grown used to the Google ecosystem

As much as I dislike it, I'm entrenched

As Google rolled out more services that required a Gmail account, I eagerly signed up for many, especially as an Android user who wanted access to free apps from the company. I'm older, wiser, and more wary of signing up for additional Google services due to the data collection by the company. But I'm now firmly entrenched in the ecosystem despite there being some good reasons to ditch Gmail.

It would take something really significant for me to switch my email provider. I do have a Zoho Mail address I use for my blog, but other than that, most of my apps work with my Gmail address.

I use Google Calendar to schedule events and reminders, Google Wallet for my boarding passes, and Google Meet for many of my work meetings. I also use Google Docs for most of my documents and rely on Google Drive for my cloud documents.

Even my Microsoft account was linked to my Gmail address until the company prompted me to create an Outlook address sometime in 2024. With 15GB of free storage, I was eager to try out the service, but ultimately, it has limited use for me. I basically use it for my Microsoft 365 subscription, and that's about it.

The fact that Gmail doesn't have a desktop app doesn't bother me either, since I prefer using web apps over native Windows apps anyway.

Outlook was promising, but Gmail won the battle

While I may try to move away from the Google ecosystem when it comes to other apps and services, I'm unlikely to switch out Gmail anytime soon. It is still a great email client, even if it has gotten worse in certain ways over the years, thanks to ads and generative AI.