Microsoft releases new Windows 10 Mobile preview with Phone app, Outlook, and Calendar improvements

Microsoft released a new Windows 10 Mobile preview today, although the company still isn’t ready to share when the operating system will be available for older devices. The latest build includes improvements to the Phone app, Outlook, and Calendar.

Like the last mobile build, this one is only available for devices that shipped with Windows 10 Mobile (the Lumia 950, 950 XL, 650, 550, Xiaomi Mi4, and Alcatel OneTouch Fierce XL). Officially, Microsoft plans to roll out Windows 10 Mobile to existing Windows Phone users in Q1 2016 — the internal target has shifted multiple times, with the latest target being March.

First up, the Phone app’s tabs have gained missed call and voicemail waiting indicators. If you open a tab with a missed call or voicemail, the indicator disappears, but this will change with an upcoming build.

Outlook Mail now lets you turn off the message preview text in the message list (Settings => Reading => Conversation => turn off “Show preview text”). There’s also a new way to get rid of junk email in your inbox: Press down on a message and choose Move to Junk. In Outlook Calendar, you can now let others know “I’ll be late” directly from meeting notifications.

Features aside, this build also contains a long list of fixes:

• An issue where the background behind the All apps list would not have an overlay (causing it to appear too bright or too dark, depending on your background) if you went back to All apps list after launching an app.
• An issue causing the title of a song in volume control to flicker a few times when you pressed play or changed tracks after a pause.
• An issue some users were experiencing with Build 14267 where your device could hang while typing and reboot.
• Improvements to the Live tile refresh logic. First, if there are pending notifications for several Live tiles, they will update in one quick sweep across the Start screen rather than one at a time. Second, if a Live tile has both badge and content updates, they will now appear at the same time. Finally, apps will now launch faster from the Start screen if there are incoming Live tile updates at the same time.
• An issue where Live tiles for certain apps (such as the Weather app) would sometimes unexpectedly be cleared of active notifications.
• An issue in which the Start screen background would appear to stutter behind the tiles when scrolling up and down the Start screen on some devices such as the Lumia 950.
• An issue where the keyboard would sometimes pop up when swiping over to the All apps list.
• An issue where icons for certain apps would appear too tiny on Live folders on the Start screen if your phone was set to 350 percent DPI.
• An issue where “More notifications” message in Action Center was not properly formatted.
• An issue where for certain languages, pressing the @ button could result in the contents of the clipboard being pasted.
• An issue where notifications using custom sounds would be silent if the underlying audio file had been deleted. Now, if that file is not present, it will play the default notification sound.
• Connected to wireless displays should now work by going to Action Center and expanding Quick actions and choosing Connect.

That said, this build also contains four known issues:

• The Bluetooth AVRCP profile on mobile has been updated to version 1.5. Some cars only tell Windows what they support and vice versa during the initial pairing ceremony. In order for this update to take full effect, you need to delete your existing Bluetooth pairing with your car and then re-pair. If you notice any issues using media playback controls or missing artist or track info, Microsoft is asking for feedback that includes your car’s make, model, and year.
• If you have a Microsoft Band 1 or 2 paired to your phone, it will no longer sync after updating to this build due to a system API failure that occurs after the update. If you want to get your Band syncing with your phone again, temporarily change the language of your phone as a short term workaround. Additionally, you can also choose to reset your phone to get out of this state, but you may experience this update issue again with the next build. This issue may also impact Skype video and audio calls.
• The Gadgets app is not able to detect the Microsoft Display Dock on phones running Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview builds, and thus cannot update the firmware version. If you have a dock which has already been updated to version 4, then this will not affect you. If you have a dock that has not been updated, then you may experience some minor issues with USB-C stability.
• Connectivity to older Wi-Fi networks using the WEP encryption security method may be broken. A workaround would be to configure your wireless routers to use WPA or WPA2, which are more secure anyway.

Today’s update bumps the Windows 10 build number from 14267, made available to testers on February 19, to build 14283. It’s not clear if Microsoft will push this build to older Windows Phone devices, but it may push out a few more preview builds first before it starts that process.