A week after Google Inc. debuted a new design for Gmail with a host of features aimed at business users, Microsoft Corp. is updating Outlook to reinforce its leadership position in the productivity segment.

Most of the big changes unveiled today focus on mobile users. One of the enhancements that will likely resonate the most is the addition of synced draft folders, which make it possible to start writing an email on one device and continue later from a desktop or a different handset.

The feature serves a similar aim as the Timeline tool that Microsoft will release for Windows next week. Designed to augment the current Task View, the latter capability will let users quickly open files and web pages that they’ve accessed in the past 30 days across their devices. Both features seem to be a part of an effort by Microsoft to provide a more cross-platform experience for users.

Notwithstanding this push, the new Outlook brings some features that will initially only be available on one specific operating system. To start, the iOS client is receiving a capability that uses machine learning to suggest potential locations for a meeting.

Microsoft said the tool takes into account a variety of factors when generating recommendations. It considers the user’s location, the list of meeting attendees and the proposed time of day among other factors. For events held at a remote venue, Outlook can even check traffic updates to inform a worker when they should head out. A somewhat slimmed-down meeting recommendation engine is also being rolled out for the web version of Outlook in conjunction.

Android users, in turn, will have access to new integration with Microsoft’s Office Lens service. The tool makes it possible to capture a document, photo or whiteboard with a smartphone camera and have it automatically cropped and enhanced to produce a more professional look.

These features are joined by numerous smaller enhancements. Most of them are geared towards user-users, but Microsoft has also thrown in new capabilities for enterprise email administrators such as compatibility with more types of proxy servers.

Since Outlook is tightly coupled with Office 365, the update should comes as a boost for Microsoft’s entire productivity portfolio. The company is seeing strong growth in this area even amid the intense competition from rivals such as Google. Microsoft’s Productivity and Business Processes unit, which includes Office 365, saw revenues rise 17 percent, to $9.01 billion, in the third quarter.

Image: Microsoft