Retirement of entity-based contextual Outlook add-ins

Today, we’re announcing that entity-based contextual add-ins in Outlook will be retired in Q2 of 2024. Contextual Outlook add-ins were introduced in Mailbox requirement set 1.1 to identify entities in messages and appointments, such as an address or a phone number. The add-ins would then initiate tasks based on these entities without leaving the mail item. Over time, the adoption of contextual add-ins decreased, while the cost to maintain it remained substantial.