Microsoft makes e-mail and chat app hybrid for iPhones

Microsoft has made a cross between a chat app and an email application. The Send app is said to be primarily intended for quick email exchanges and has been released for iOS. Versions for Android and Windows Phone would follow later.

Send is not a ‘complete’ email app and therefore does not show all email exchanges, Microsoft explains. It only shows the mail exchanges that the user has started in the app itself. This allows people to send each other a short email and then see whether the other person is answering, just like in a chat application.

The e-mails that users send via Send also end up in Outlook as all other e-mails. There are no subject lines or signatures in Send. Send is a so-called Garage project for Microsoft, projects that employees bring “on the side” and that are not part of larger plans of the company. Send has been released for iOS users in the United States and Canada and is due out soon for Android and Windows Phone. When that is exactly, Microsoft does not specify. The company developed Send under the code name Flow.