Choose Outlook add-in

In contrast to most Jira apps, Outlook Email for Jira needs to be installed in Outlook, as well. First, please choose if you are using Microsoft 365 or an Exchange onPremise server.

1. COM vs. Office add-in

Microsoft deployed a new Outlook version for Microsoft 365 in April 2023 that won’t support COM add-ins anymore!
Please consider this before choosing to deploy the COM add-in.

There are two different kinds of Outlook add-in for you to choose: Which one suits you best?

You have the choice how to use our add-in, depending on your individual requirements.

The COM add-in supports some features which are not supported with the Office add-in. If you do not need the features being available with the COM add-in, we strongly recommend using the Office add-in, since it’s much more lightweight.

If you need the features of the COM add-in, you basically can decide if:

You only want to use the COM add-in (only works on Windows)
You want to use both - COM add-in on Windows and Office add-in on iOS/Android/Web

If you want to use both, we recommend hiding the Office add-in in Windows, so you do not end up with too many buttons.

You can check the differences in the table below.

Get the Office add-in per user installation

Depending on your exact Exchange version and Outlook client version, you may be able to use the Office add-in. We do not recommend this though, since we have customers who had issues get it running.

We recommend that you use the new COM add-in.

Get the COM add-in PER USER INSTALLATION

2. Deployment options

microsoft 365 admin

It is up to you to distribute the add-in to your users, so they can start using it in Outlook.
Depending on which add-in you plan to use, there will be multiple options:
- Deployment of Office add-in
- Deployment of COM add-in

3. Feature Differences

Feature	COM add-in	Office add-in (from AppSource)

Feature	COM add-in	Office add-in (from AppSource)
Create Issue Add to Issue View Issues	✅	✅
Supported platforms	Outlook for Windows 2010-2019	Outlook for Windows 2013-2019* Outlook for Mac Outlook for Web Outlook for iOS / Android* * see additional requirements
Support for text selection to new issue	✅	❌ This is currently technically not possible using the Office add-in. We are lobbying with Microsoft to make this possible in the future.
Show an icon/label for emails that have been attached to an issue	✅	✅
No dialog timeout	✅	❌
Supports connections to non-secure HTTP systems	✅	❌
No proxy required, independent from the Jira system	✅	❌
Works on all shared mailboxes	✅	❌

4. Outlook add-in requirements

Outlook Email for Jira contains multiple components to make it work.

There is a Jira app installed from the Atlassian marketplace and there are 2 technically different Outlook add-ins. You need to match the requirements for the Jira app as well as at least one Outlook add-in.

Overview

	Office add-in	COM add-in

	Office add-in	COM add-in
Windows	Outlook 2013, 2016, 2019 Office 365 or Exchange Server 2016 CU5	Outlook 2010 or newer Windows 7 SP1 or newer .Net Framework 4.7.1 or newer IE11 or Microsoft Egde
Mac	Outlook 2016, version 15.37 or newer Office 365 or Exchange Server 2016 CU5	not available
Web	Office 365 or Exchange Server 2016 CU5	not available
Mobile (Android & Windows)	Outlook mobile app Office 365	not available

Modern Office add-in

More detailed information about the requirements on the modern Office add-in can be found in the Microsoft docs. Outlook Email for Jira needs an Outlook client with Requirement Set 1.4

Outlook Exchange and Client support

COM add-in

COM add-ins are installed locally on the computer, so they are only available for Windows. It purely installs into local appdata folder, so no admin privileges are required.