Prioritize My Inbox is the Copilot feature in Outlook that sorted arriving mail into high, normal and low priority and gave a reason for each. Microsoft is retiring it: the rollback began on October 26, 2026 and runs to the end of March 2027. This guide shows the dates, what Outlook still offers, and how to keep a priority view when a founder's urgent message may sit in Slack or Teams instead of the inbox.
When is Microsoft removing Prioritize My Inbox?
Microsoft started removing Prioritize My Inbox on October 26, 2026 and plans to finish by the end of March 2027. The dates come from the Microsoft 365 message center post MC1519861, which we opened on October 29, 2026. It was published on October 21 and revised on October 22, when Microsoft changed the body and the end date. If you see a different end date on another site, the October 22 version is the current one.
| Feature | What happens |
|---|---|
| October 21, 2026 | Microsoft publishes MC1519861: Copilot Prioritize will be retired |
| October 22, 2026 | Microsoft revises the notice, including the end date |
| October 26, 2026 | Rollback begins |
| End of March 2027 | Removal completes in all Outlook clients |
What does Prioritize My Inbox do, and what do you lose?
Prioritize My Inbox reviews your emails as they arrive and assigns a priority of high, low or normal, with a reason the email might matter to you. That is Microsoft's wording in its Copilot in Outlook FAQ, which showed an update date of October 2026 when we opened it on October 29, 2026. The FAQ also says you could tell Copilot which topics to rank high or low, and that the feature supported only Tier 1 languages.
The change affects users who currently have access to Copilot Prioritize in Outlook. The notice says the Prioritize user experience will be removed from all Outlook clients, that it names no replacement, and that no opt-in or admin action is needed. The notice covers Prioritize only. The same FAQ lists summaries, drafts, scheduling and rule management as separate Copilot features.
How do you keep sorting your Outlook inbox without it?
Focused Inbox is the sorting feature Microsoft still documents for Outlook: it splits the inbox into a Focused and an Other tab. It is coarser than a three-level priority with reasons, and it learns from the people you interact with. Microsoft Support, which we opened on October 29, 2026, gives these steps.
- In the new Outlook for Windows, select View, then View Settings, then Mail, then Message List, choose the account and check Sort messages into Focused and Other, then Save.
- In classic Outlook, select the View tab, then Show Focused Inbox.
- In Outlook on the web, select Settings, then Mail, then Message List, and check Sort messages into Focused and Other.
- To teach it, right-click a message, choose Move to Other inbox or Move to Focused inbox, and use Always move to for that sender.
Microsoft Support lists two limits. In Outlook for Windows, Focused Inbox works only with Microsoft 365, Exchange and Outlook.com accounts, and it does not work with shared mailboxes, which the page says is by design.
| Feature | Prioritize My Inbox | Focused Inbox |
|---|---|---|
| What you see | High, low or normal, with a reason | Two tabs: Focused and Other |
| Status | Being removed, October 26, 2026 to end of March 2027 | Documented on Microsoft Support; not named in the notice |
| Shared mailboxes | Not described | Does not work, by design |
How do you rank mail, Slack and Teams in one place?
Nolario ranks Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Microsoft Teams and Google Calendar in one feed that sits outside Outlook. It scores each item from 0 to 100, shows the reasons behind the score and drafts replies in your voice. Nolario is our product, so weigh this accordingly: it is a separate feed outside Outlook, not a drop-in replacement for the Outlook feature.
Nolario never sends a message for you, it is a desktop web app with no mobile app yet, and it has no shared inbox. Teams chats work for work and school Microsoft accounts only. Nolario is in early access. Access is by waitlist, joining the waitlist is free, and the product opens to waitlist members between May and August 2027. For how a score is built, read how AI decides which emails are important. For the Copilot side of the comparison, see Nolario vs Microsoft Copilot in Outlook and the best AI email assistants for Outlook, and the integrations page for the channels.
What should you do this week?
Turn on Focused Inbox if you want a sort inside Outlook before March 2027, and check where your must-answer messages arrive. If they also arrive in Slack, Teams or a second mailbox, a ranked feed across those channels such as Nolario covers more than Outlook can, and seeing all your Outlook accounts in one view is the step to take inside Outlook.
