How to Manage Sound Notifications in Outlook on Windows 11

The new Outlook app for Windows 11 is a modern way to manage your emails and calendar. It includes many features for subscription management, email forwarding, setting default From address, backing up your mailbox, changing the reading pane, opening a new window for a message, language translations, turning text predictions on or off, switch primary account, sharing a calendar,  changing language, date, and time format, public a calendar, show week numbers in Outlook calendar, deleting your search history, export your search history, add or remove events from emails to your Calendar, switch to dark mode, link preview, sound alerts for notifications, turn on or off notifications when Outlook is closed, alerts for emails and mentions, customize new email alerts, and notifications from favorites only.

Why manage sound notifications?

You might want to turn on sound alerts to know exactly when an important email arrives. On the other hand, you may want to turn them off if the noise becomes distracting. It is all about choosing what helps you work best.

What happens when you are done?

Once you finish these steps, Outlook will either play a sound or stay silent whenever a new email hits your inbox, depending on your choice. You can change these settings at any time.

How to change sound settings in Outlook

You can adjust these settings to hear sounds for some items but not for others. Follow these steps to customize your experience:

1. Open the Outlook app from your Start menu or taskbar.
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4. Click the Settings gear icon located in the top right corner.
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7. In the menu on the left, click General and then select Notifications.
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10. Ensure that Notifications in Outlook is turned on. (This assumes you have Notification in Outlook enabled in your system settings). If you have trouble, check your Windows Notification settings, ensure Windows Focus settings are off, and verify that Battery Saver is off.
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13. To stop or start alerts for new emails and mentions, find the Mail tile and toggle the switch to On or Off.
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16. To specifically control the sound, make sure Outlook and Mail notifications are enabled. Click the down-arrow on the Mail tile.
17. Find the Play sound tile and toggle the switch to On or Off.
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20. Click Save if the button appears to apply your changes.

Note: These steps do not require administrator privileges to perform.

Summary

Managing your sound notifications in the new Outlook app is a simple process. By navigating to Settings and selecting the Notifications menu, you can easily toggle sounds for emails and mentions on or off. This allows you to stay informed about your messages without dealing with unwanted noise throughout your workday.