Outlook sample addin added, but it is not shown

Question

I have taken the sample Outlook addin from here

https://github.com/OfficeDev/Outlook-Add-in-JavaScript-ModuleExtension

If I add that addin to my Installed Outlook Apps (at the URL https://exchange.contoso.com/ecp/Extension/InstalledExtensions.slab?rfr=olk&exsvurl=1&realm=contoso.com opened via "Manage Add-Ins") the Navigation Bar entry does not show up in my Outlook 2016.

This is how it should look as per the example description:

but the "Billable Hours" part does not show up the Navigation bar, not even under "Options".

My Outlook 2016 is 16.0.7369.2130 German, and the underlying Exchange Server is Exchange 2013 CU 11, could that be an issue?

Answer 1

The issue is that Exchange 2013 does not support this type of add-ins, and is unable to just send unsupported types of add-ins to the Client, which would support it. Also, there is no way to get this type of add-in directly into the Outlook client, circumventing the Exchange server.

Of course this is not documented anywhere.

Against an Exchange 2016 server or Office 365, the add-in works as expected.