Earlier this summer, Microsoft announced Send, a project for Office 365 users that aims to bring together the best of email and instant messaging. At the time, the service was only available on iPhone, but starting today, Android users will also be able to give it a try.
With this update, Microsoft is also expanding the availability of Send beyond the U.S. and Canada. The service is now also available in the UK, Brazil and Denmark.
That’s all great, but what Send users have really been waiting for is the ability to send animated GIFs. Fear not, Send now allows you to express your deepest feelings of despair through sad animated cat images, too. After all, “sometimes a simple GIF can express more than words ever could,” Microsoft says.
While this isn’t the first time a company has tried to marry instant messaging and email (even Gmail felt a bit like this early on), Send seems like an interesting experiment. The vast majority of my email responses these days seem to be about two sentences long, after all, yet Gmail and others still handle these short messages just like any other email.
Sadly, Send currently only supports Office 365 users with business and school accounts. Your email recipients don’t have to be Office 365 users, though. They will simply see these messages as regular emails.
You can now download the Android app from the Google Play Store here.