Microsoft looks to be building a new light-weight email app called Flow
Summary:Microsoft appears to be building an app for fast, light-weight, real-time conversations called Flow, which is likely to debut on iPhone, according to leaked information. — Microsoft seems to be developing …
Context & Ripple Effects
This May 2015 leak caught Microsoft mid-pivot: two months later it shipped Send, an iPhone email app built around short, instant-messaging-style exchanges — effectively the product this report describes under the codename Flow. The arc matters because Microsoft was rebuilding its consumer communication tools iPhone-first rather than Windows-first.
The Flow name itself didn't survive as an email app: by 2016 Microsoft had repurposed it for an IFTTT-like workflow automation tool that launched on iOS that June. Alongside its Word Flow keyboard beta for iOS, the episode captures a company testing consumer software on rival platforms while its own phone business stalled.
First-order effects
- Microsoft's mobile email strategy lands on iPhone first, not Windows Phone — Send's launch confirms the leaked app's target platform and IM-like format.
Second-order effects
- The Flow brand gets recycled into a workflow-automation product, signaling Microsoft treats these lightweight apps as disposable experiments rather than franchises.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — Flow, Send, and Word Flow all reaching iOS before or instead of Windows devices — Microsoft's consumer software strategy decouples from its phone hardware, conceding distribution to Apple and Google.
The trend: Microsoft's consumer app experiments in the post-Windows Phone era are increasingly designed and debuted for iOS, with brands like Flow treated as reusable labels rather than long-term products.