A new feature in O365 called Clutter has or should soon be showing up in your OWA (Outlook on-line) or desktop Outlook client. Microsoft has been talking about it since last November. It should be noted that this feature is pushed out to all users, i.e. automatically enabled. That means you might be surprised to see a new folder in your Outlook called Clutter.
I’d been hearing about it and originally read it was an opt-in thing, but turns out everyone will automatically get this feature. Most daily users of O365 probably don’t keep up with new O365 features being rolled out, so I wanted to mention it here.
From the blog, “Clutter uses machine learning and user interactions to determine which email messages to filter and move from the inbox into the Clutter folder.” The goal of Clutter is to watch how you use your email and then it will start ‘learning’ your particular habits. An example would be Clutter will take notice of emails you open right away and emails you don’t. So if you get weekly emails notifying you of trainings available from a service you subscribe to and don’t open them the day they come in, Clutter will take note and put it in the Clutter folder. As Clutter sees you opening email from co-workers right away, it will keep those emails in your Inbox.
There’s really nothing you need to do with this feature. It’s made to quietly observe in the background and the goal of this service is to keep the important things in your inbox and the unimportant in Clutter. If you wish, you can move things into Clutter to help Clutter learn faster. You can also move things out of Clutter and it should pick up on this and not put those types of emails in there anymore.
How To Adjust Clutter Settings
You’ll need to log into your web OWA account, then from Mail, click on the gear icon in the upper right (settings). Then scroll down to options and keep enabled or disable the Clutter feature for your email.
So now when you see this pop up in your mailbox, you’ll know what it does, how to use it and how to disable it if you wish. If you are part of a larger organization and your administrator sets the policies, you may or may not be able to change the settings.
So what do you think of this feature and that it’s automatically enabled? Leave me a comment!