Alongside a slate of announcements made this morning, Microsoft has launched a new text-to-speech feature for Cortana in the Outlook app for iOS devices. With this feature, called "Play My Emails," the Outlook app uses Cortana's natural language interactions and AI to read out your latest emails.

cortana emails
Microsoft is aiming this feature at users who want to catch up on their inboxes while doing something else, like driving or working at their desks. Cortana starts by summarizing how many emails are new in the user's Focused Inbox in the last 24 hours, and if there have been any changes to their upcoming daily schedule, thanks to integration with Outlook's calendar.


Cortana also uses Microsoft Graph to identity the sender of each email in relationship to the user, so it's easier to know the context of the message without looking at the screen. Because of these abilities and more, Microsoft said that Play My Emails is more than just a text-to-speech update, but a way to have a natural conversation with Cortana.

Cortana synthesizes the information in the message header and meta data and marries it with the insights about you and information from apps and services that power Office 365. This provides a more meaningful and contextual readout.

The Play My Emails experience is like having a conversation with your personal assistant.

Play My Emails is launching today to customers in the United States for the Outlook app on iOS devices, and later it will launch on Android.

Top Rated Comments

1144557 Avatar
78 months ago
MS killing is here adding useful stuff to Outlook every few weeks. Making the broken iOS Mail app look really bad right now after months of no fixes somehow
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jmh600cbr Avatar
78 months ago
Siri needs this with CarPlay
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ThisisAdar Avatar
78 months ago
Microsoft taking swings at Google like Paquaio did against Mayweather. In the end us consumers win from this. ??‍♂️
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Peepo Avatar
78 months ago
No Canada ?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
1144557 Avatar
78 months ago

What is broken in Mail? Please list 3 things.

"Play" My Emails is strange language. Why not "Read My Emails", "Review My Emails", or "Check My Email"?

Apple is moving slowly in some areas. Too slowly.
You clearly arent a newb, so try searching. Many threads on Macrumors like

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ios-13-native-mail-app.2205325/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ios-13-2-mail-app-freezing-after-search.2209344/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mail-rarely-pushing-to-iphone.2208101/


and even some in the Apple official forums too https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250795626

Hell just search the site for the word "mail" in the search box and see how many Maill app issues pop up

HUNDREDS of posts of issues in the above thread and general iOS 13 threads; Im not going to spend my time rattling them off but- no notifications for Exchange accounts, double sent mails entries showing for exchange, mail not updating until opening app.

Exchange and the stock Mail app has a host of known issues, see the chart someone in the above thread made https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ios-13-native-mail-app.2205325/page-2?post=27898725#post-27898725

HUGE usability bugs in general with the core functions of an email app not even nitpicking the small stuff like my the email functions (reply, forward, archive, ove) that were perfectly fine across the bottom bar over 12 OS versions are now buried in a submenu now with only delete and the bottons are right next to each other where one can accidentally delete an email https://www.cultofmac.com/661624/mail-app-trash-can-ios-13/

Denial isnt just a river in Egypt.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gplusplus Avatar
78 months ago
If only I could change the default email client on my $1,100.00 device.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 26

6 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.1

Wednesday October 29, 2025 4:22 am PDT by
Apple is about to drop iOS 26.1, the first major point release since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least six notable changes and improvements to look forward to. We've rounded them up below. Apple has already provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 26.1, which means Apple will likely roll out the update to all compatible...
iOS 26

iOS 26.1 Coming Soon: New Features for Your iPhone and Release Date

Monday October 27, 2025 7:55 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more. Below, we outline key details about iOS 26.1. Release Date Given that Apple has yet to seed an iOS 26.1 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, the...
iPhone 17 Pro Cosmic Orange

8 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 18 Pro

Thursday October 30, 2025 4:42 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth...
ios 26 1 slide to stop

iOS 26.1 Brings Back 2007 Feature in New Way

Friday October 31, 2025 1:40 pm PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a small but helpful change for iPhones, and it could prevent you from running late to something important. Specifically, when an alarm goes off in the Clock app, there is a new "slide to stop" control on the screen for turning off the alarm. On previous iOS 26 versions, there is simply a large "stop" button, which could be accidentally tapped. The new ...
M5 MacBook Pro

Waiting for New Macs? Apple Just Shared Bad News

Friday October 31, 2025 7:32 am PDT by
Apple has just given a strong indication that it will not be releasing any additional new Macs for the remainder of the year. Apple's CFO Kevan Parekh dropped the hint during the company's earnings call on Thursday:On Mac, keep in mind, we expect to face a very difficult compare against the M4 MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac launches in the year-ago quarter.Parekh essentially gave a heads up ...
maxresdefault

Apple TV 4K Could Still Launch Before 2025 Ends: All the Rumored Features

Monday October 27, 2025 4:51 pm PDT by
Apple is designing an updated version of the Apple TV 4K, and rumors suggest that it could come out sometime in the next couple of months. We're not expecting a major overhaul with design changes, but even a simple chip upgrade will bring major improvements to Apple's set-top box. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've rounded up all the latest Apple TV rumors. ...
ipad mini 7 feature blue

OLED iPad Mini: Release Date, Pricing, and What to Expect

Wednesday October 29, 2025 7:13 am PDT by
Rumors are stoking excitement for the next-generation iPad mini that Apple is reportedly close to launching. So what should we expect from the successor to the iPad mini 7 that Apple released over a year ago? Read on to find out. Processor and Performance Apple is working on a next-generation version of the iPad mini (codename J510/J511) that features the A19 Pro chip, according to...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1 Release Candidates

Tuesday October 28, 2025 1:07 pm PDT by
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1 updates for testing purposes. The RCs betas come a week after Apple released the fourth betas. The new betas can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software...
apple tv hd

Apple Launched Its Big New Vision for TV 10 Years Ago Today

Thursday October 30, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple launched the Apple TV HD, the Siri Remote, tvOS, and their accompanying App Store a decade ago today, marking a major overhaul of the device. The new vision for the Apple TV was unveiled on September 9, 2015 during Apple's "Hey Siri" event in San Francisco, where CEO Tim Cook introduced the device with the statement, "The future of TV is apps." The announcement represented a major...