Microsoft Outlook currently lets users hide suggested recipients while typing in the To / Cc / Bcc fields. This behavior is known as Contact Masking.
The feature was causing more confusion than it was solving; people were accidentally hiding contacts and then wondering why certain names weren’t showing up. It was also behaving inconsistently across different Microsoft 365 apps.
So, that’s going away. March 31, 2026.
- If you previously hid a suggested contact, it may start reappearing in:
- Email recipient suggestions
- People suggestions
- Search results
- Autocomplete history still works as normal
- No contacts are being added, deleted, or modified
- Email sending and addressing continue to work normally