Getting the Microsoft Outlook Email Add-in

You know those never-ending email threads that would be so much quicker and easier to resolve if you could just have a simple conversation with everyone in one place?  You can, now, with Watson Workspace's new custom add-in for Microsoft Outlook.  It allows you to:

• Create a new space directly from an email message, seamlessly continuing your workflow.
• Share emails and email attachments into a space in Watson Workspace and discuss the work in real time.
• See what actions you need to take in your email messages. We're using Watson cognitive technology, Action Summary (beta), to recognize and highlight key actions in your email conversations.  

Here's how you set up the Watson Workspace add-in for Outlook: 

1. Download this file.  You will use this to add the custom add-in in Outlook.
2. In Outlook, go to Settings. Choose Manage add-ins.
   
   
   
   
3. Select Click here to add a custom add-in.
   
   
   
   
4. Click Add from file and add the .xml file from Step 1
   
5. Navigate to your inbox.  When you open an email you will see the Watson Workspace icon to the left of the email controls. 
   
   
   
6. Click the icon to open the add-in (it will open in the right panel).
   
   
    
7. Agree to the Terms of Service by checking the box.  Click Continue. 
   
   

Note: As we are learning about this functionality and to limit potential impact from bots, we are currently restricting the number of emails processed to 100 per calendar month.

Also, when you choose to create a new space from the email or share the contents of the email to a space, only the first 200 characters of the email are shared into the transcript.  The rest of the email is shared as an eml file and stored in the resource drawer. 

Tip: Watson is continuously learning, and getting smarter, and your feedback is an important part of that. Submit an idea or reach out to us with things you like or wish would show up in the summary.

If you need to remove the add-in from Outlook, here's how:

1. In Outlook, go to Settings.  Choose Manage add-ins.
   
   
   
   
2. Click My add-ins.
   
   
   
   
3. Click Uninstall. 

Note: You can revoke access to Outlook from Watson Workspace at anytime by going to user settings and clicking Connected Apps.