Active Views in my Outlook.com inbox

Preview or interact with content right in your inbox, rather than going to another website, with Microsoft Outlook Active Views. There are two ways you can use Active Views:

  • Previews: When you get email messages containing links—like a link to a friend's photos or videos—you can use Active Views to preview the content. For example, if someone sends you a link to a photo site, you’ll see smaller versions of the photos right in the message. That way you don’t have to go to another website to see the photos or watch the videos.

  • Interactive email: When you receive email with updates from a website, you can interact with the content right from the email, rather than going to the website. For example, if a social networking site sends you status updates, you can post comments or accept friend requests right from the message.

To turn Active Views on or off:

  1. Sign in to your Outlook account.

  2. In the upper-right of the Outlook window, click the Options icon Options icon, and then click More mail settings.
  3. Under Reading email, click Active View settings.

  4. Under Do you want to see previews?, choose whether to show or hide previews.

  5. Click Save.

Notes

Notes

  • If photos or other files are attached to an email message to you, Outlook uses Active Views to display them. You can't turn off this type of Active View.

  • Active Views are designed so that your privacy is protected. For more information about Microsoft and privacy, you can read our privacy statement.

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