What is the Outlook Inbox active view for?
With the Microsoft Outlook activity view, you can preview content or interact with content directly in your Inbox without having to go to another site.
How does Outlook Inbox activity View work?
Preview: When you receive an e-mail message that contains a link (such as a buddy photo or video link), you can preview the content using the active view. For example, when someone sends you a photo site link, you see a thumbnail image of the photo in the message. This way, you don't have to go to other sites to view photos or watch videos.
Interactive e-mail: When you receive an e-mail message with a Web site update, you can interact with the content directly in the e-mail message without having to go to that site. For example, if a social networking site sends you status updates, you can post comments or accept a friend request from a message.
Note:
Turn active view on or off: Log in to your Outlook account. In the upper-right corner of the Outlook window, click the Options icon, and then click More e-mail settings. Under Read e-mail, click active view Settings. Do you want to view the preview? , select whether to show or hide the preview. On "Enable interactive mail?" , select whether to receive interactive mail. Click Save.