Outlook.com officially launched Tuesday, marking the demise of its predecessor, Hotmail.

Nearly seven months after unveiling a preview of the email service last July, Microsoft announced the end of its beta run in a blog post.

Microsoft, which acquired Hotmail in 1997, said it will switch users to the new service “soon,” but won’t force them to change their emails to an “outlook.com” address. It added that all users should expect to see the change take place by this summer.

“Everything from their @hotmail.com email address, password, messages, folders, contacts, rules, vaation replies, etc. will stay the same, with no disruption in service.”

The software giant also revealed that over 60 million people are actively using Outlook.com.

READ MORE >>  Outlook.com Officially Replaces Hotmail, Boasts 60M Users.