Setting up the Outlook add-in: forwarding insights to Learned

With the Outlook add-in, employees can forward an email to Learned as an insight with a single click — handy for feedback, observations, or an email you'd like to find back later on someone's profile. All it takes is for you, as the administrator, to roll out the add-in once. After that, it's automatically ready for your colleagues.

What to check before you start

A few things need to be in place, otherwise you'll get stuck along the way:

• You need the right admin role, namely Global Administrator (or Global Admin together with Exchange Admin). Without that role, you simply won't see Settings → Integrated apps in the admin center.
• Your employees' mailboxes have to run on Exchange Online (the Microsoft 365 cloud mailboxes). On on-premises or hybrid mailboxes, Outlook add-ins won't show up, even if they're in the same tenant.
• Custom app upload has to be enabled for your tenant. Has your organization locked down custom apps within Integrated apps? Turn that back on first, otherwise you won't be able to upload.

How do you set this up?

Step 1: Turn on the email integration in Learned

1. Log in to Learned at https://app.learned.io.
2. Go to Settings → Integrations.
3. Check whether Email is already listed under Communications. If it isn't, click Add integration and add it.
4. Click Email to open the window. That's where you'll find the manifests you need next.

Step 2: Download the manifest

Inside that same email window (from Step 1), two files are waiting for you:

• Learned-Outlook-add-in-manifest.xml (the classic manifest) — this is the one you need.
• Learned-Outlook-add-in-manifest.zip (the unified manifest) — only as a fallback.

Step 3: Roll out the add-in in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center

1. Go to https://admin.microsoft.com.
2. Click Settings → Integrated apps (in the left-hand navigation; you may need to click Show all first).
3. At the top of the page, click Upload custom apps.
4. Choose Upload manifest file and select your Learned-Outlook-add-in-manifest.xml. (You can also use "Provide link to manifest file" if you host the file somewhere, but uploading it directly is easiest.)
5. Assign the add-in. For this first time, choose Just me or a small test group — so not "Entire org" just yet. That way you can quietly check that everything works before bothering everyone with it.
   • If you go for a group, do double-check that your testers are actually members of it. "Just me" only covers you, not the colleagues helping you test.
6. Click Accept permissions and then Finish deployment.
7. Finally, check that the Status shows "Deployed" (and not "Deploying" or pending) and that the app is switched on in the list of Integrated apps.

Step 4: A little patience — the add-in needs to spread

After the rollout, Microsoft pushes the add-in to each mailbox in the background. That simply takes time:

• Count on up to 24 hours, and for a very first rollout often 6 hours or more.

Step 5: How your colleagues find and use the add-in

Good to know: the add-in only appears while you're reading a message. So it isn't on your inbox toolbar, and it isn't in the app bar on the left either. Explain to your colleagues that they should:

1. Open outlook.office.com (or new Outlook) and open a received email.
2. Look in the toolbar at the top of the message for the Learned button ("Open Learned Pane").
3. In Outlook on the web, that button is often tucked away behind the "⋯ More apps" / "Apps" menu at the top of the open message. Click it and you'll find it.

Not sure whether the add-in actually arrived through your rollout? Open Get Add-ins and look under the "Admin Managed" tab — that's where centrally deployed add-ins show up. Is it there, but you still don't see it on the ribbon? Then it really is just a matter of looking inside an open email, under that "⋯ Apps" menu.

Ready to let everyone join in?

Once your testers confirm that everything works, head back to Settings → Integrated apps, open the rollout, and switch the assignment from your test group to Entire organization (or the groups you want). And here too, the same patience applies: count on up to 24 hours before everyone has the add-in.

Updating or removing the add-in later

• Updating: does Learned release a new version of the manifest? Download the new Learned-Outlook-add-in-manifest.xml and go to Integrated apps → (the app) → Update. The spreading will take a little time again afterwards.
• Removing: go to Integrated apps → (the app) → Remove. After the same spreading period, the add-in is gone for everyone.