How does Microsoft interpret engagement?

Microsoft interprets engagement through a lens emphasizing user safety and time relevance. Signals include opens, clicks, replies, and forwarding, but Microsoft also weighs how quickly users interact with messages and whether they move messages between folders.

Negative engagement signals carry significant weight. Users marking messages as junk, deleting without reading, or consistently ignoring a sender's messages inform Microsoft's filtering. The Focused Inbox algorithm specifically learns from these patterns to deprioritize senders users do not engage with.

Unlike Gmail's highly personalized engagement model, Microsoft's consumer filtering applies engagement signals more broadly. Your overall engagement rates across Microsoft recipients influence reputation, though individual user training affects their specific inbox experience. Maintaining engagement requires sending content recipients actually want.