(CBS Charlotte) — By the summer of 2013, Microsoft plans to replace Hotmail with Outlook.com.

The change was decided, in part because within the last six months, the mail service has gained 60 million users.

Will Your Hotmail Email Address Change?

The official announcement of Microsoft’s plans created some concern amongst Hotmail users, as they would like to keep their @hotmail.com email address. Fortunately, @hotmail.com email addresses are not going away, but rather once the change is made, Hotmail users will be re-routed to Outlook.com — after logging in to their accounts.

Hotmail users still have the option to use their @hotmail.com email address, in addition to being able to create an @outlook.com email address, if they choose to.

Change Is Good…

Let’s face facts though, Hotmail’s interface is extremely outdated, and the new Outlook.com may even surpass the functionality and features of Gmail. So in short, this is a good change for Hotmail users.

While Microsoft should have all accounts switched over by summer, you can manually initiate the switch by clicking on Settings in your Hotmail account. Once there, simply click on “convert to Outlook,” and get introduced to all of the new tools available to you through Outlook.com.

-Nichole Jaworski, CBS Charlotte