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Build Day Two - Your Phone and Sets Shine while Outlook gets Powerful

Day two of Build showcased the best of the software side of Microsoft with a greater focus on Microsoft 365 and Office 365. 

Microsoft has introduced “Sets” which is basically is a collection of apps you were using that are relevant to each other. For example, Microsoft demoed a Word document that was being published; the document was opened in a tabbed interface. Using new tabs, they were able to open two more tabs with relevant research from Edge as well as an Excel sheet in another tab. When the overall tab was closed and the Excel spreadsheet reopened, it prompted to reopen the other tabs that were opened at the same time with that file earlier.

There was also some more demonstration about “Your Phone”. The mirroring app has access to the notifications, photos, and messages from the open with the ability to in-line reply from the notification window. The app allows complete access between the phone and computer so any pictures, files, et cetera can be placed in the messages section to be sent from the phone will also be able to be used in applications on the PC. The phone and computer will sync together as basically a screen extension for each other making the need to pick up your phone while on your PC pointless.

In addition, Microsoft provided some more in-detail demonstrations of its Timeline feature. From within Cortana, you can view your entire catalog of recently used applications and files to help with continuing from one device to the other. While this would be an incredibly helpful feature, it does require use of Microsoft Launcher on Android and Edge on iOS.

Finally, Microsoft took the curtain off of Outlook features such as in-app payment and invoicing from directly inside of Outlook. Unfortunately, my fascination with Google led me to pay attention to I/O more than Build so I will update you all with more Microsoft news as it comes in.

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