Users in the new Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web can create Inbox rules to automatically reply to incoming messages using a saved template.
Inbox rules with templates are available for personal, shared, and delegated mailboxes.
Timeline
The rollout should be completed by December 2026.
How does this affect your users?
Users who rely on Inbox rules will get a new option to reply automatically to incoming messages.
Until now, an Inbox rule could not send a saved template as a reply. After the rollout, a user can create a rule with conditions for incoming messages and select a saved template as the automatic reply.
Users can create or modify such templates in Outlook under Settings > Email > Templates, as described in Create email templates in Outlook.
When an incoming message meets the rule conditions, Outlook sends the configured template response without further user action. It also doesn't indicate the reply is based on a template, unless the template includes such wording.
Inbox rules with templates aren't a replacement for an out-of-office message, but users can use them for that purpose.
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