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Microsoft Announces Cross-Platform Add-Ins for Office Apps, Plans to Bring iOS Apps to Windows 10

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Apr 12, 2001
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Microsoft held its annual BUILD conference for developers this morning, where it made several announcements that may be of interest to Mac and iOS users. First off, the company announced cross-platform add-ins that will deeply integrate third-party apps and services into multiple versions of Office, including Office for iOS.

Microsoft's add-ins (which can be thought of as plug-ins) will enable a range of third-party services to integrate with Office on Windows, iOS, Android, and presumably Mac when the new Office 2016 is released. For example, Uber might be built into Outlook, letting users call for rides directly from their calendar appointments. Another example shown on stage was PicHit, an app offering a photo marketplace within the PowerPoint app.

uberoutlook-800x530.jpg
Uber in Outlook, image via The Verge​
​
The implementation sounds similar to Apple's own use of app extensions, letting third-party apps interact with Microsoft's offerings in new ways, but with Microsoft's tools, add-ins created for one platform will work on all platforms. On stage, third-party apps integrated into Office were shown off on an iPad and an iPhone 6.

According to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, deep cross-platform app integration is aimed at preventing users from needing to jump from application to application to accomplish tasks. The company's vision is to make it easier to use Office apps and various services regardless of the device the software is being run on, turning Office into a platform.

Microsoft is also planning to make it easier for developers to bring their iOS and Android apps over to Windows 10, its upcoming cross-platform operating system, by releasing new tools. iOS developers will be able to compile Objective C code using Microsoft's Visual Studio to quickly create apps compatible with Windows 10.

On stage at the conference, Terry Myerson demonstrated an iPad app that had been converted to a Windows 10 app. Getting Android apps on Windows 10 is even easier, as Windows 10 includes "an Android subsystem" to support Java and C++ code Android apps are already built from. App availability has always been the major downside to Microsoft's Windows mobile devices, as they lag behind iOS and Android when it comes to the number of apps available.

The introduction of tools to make it simple to port existing apps over to Windows 10 could be a huge boon for Microsoft, growing its App Store exponentially in the coming months.

Microsoft's final Apple-related announcement was the introduction of a Mac version of Visual Studio Code, its former Windows-only coding app. According to Microsoft's site, the app is free and aimed at letting developers build and debug modern web and cloud applications.

Article Link: Microsoft Announces Cross-Platform Add-Ins for Office Apps, Plans to Bring iOS Apps to Windows 10
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/04/29/microsoft-cross-platform-add-ins-office/
But you still have to pay for a subscription service to Microsoft. I still cant get my self to do that with MS or Adobe or anyone else.

I buy my music, no subscription
I buy my software, no subscription
I watch TV, no subscription
I rent movies one time or buy them, no subscription

Only subscription is for internet and cell service, cant buy those.
 
Great idea to get people into the Microsoft ecosystem without compromising everything they already know and use.
 
the biggest and most important thing missing.

this is the SECOND showing of all this fancy new dev tech. Win10, Hololens, all the fancy stuff we want

and again

ZERO DATES

come on microsoft. Stop toying with me
 
Objective-C and Android support is likely a gamble on their part, I’m curious to see whether it pays off. In the worst case, developers will start porting apps rather than creating more native apps and Microsoft may be compelled to invest lots of resources into maintaining support for Android and iOS in addition to their native SDK. Apple will likely have more trouble in convincing developers to use Swift if Microsoft 10 gains momentum.

BlackBerry did something similar with their Android runtime and Core SDK. Personally, my experiences with Android ports were not that good. There are always inconsistencies with respect to the user experience and the Android runtime brought some quirks with it that are common in Android, like not being able to reject app permissions. When I saw the demo in the keynote, I immediately recognised this. To make the Android subsystem work, they need to connect everything with the native parts. It needs to be done well to make the experience seamless for end users.
 
KALLT said:
In the worst case, developers will start porting apps rather than creating more native apps
Click to expand...

I'm not sure developers are creating lots of native WP apps at this point. So it seems they have nothing much to lose.
 
Microsoft is in a really good position here if they can make these iOS and Android apps run well, with minimum effort by developers to support Windows 10.

The platform wars are pretty fascinating.
 
tkermit said:
I'm not sure developers are creating lots of native WP apps at this point. So it seems they have nothing much to lose.
Click to expand...

Except money of course. :p I wonder how much it cost them to create these porting tools and developing the Android subsystem. They will have to maintain them as well.
 
LordVic said:
the biggest and most important thing missing.

this is the SECOND showing of all this fancy new dev tech. Win10, Hololens, all the fancy stuff we want

and again

ZERO DATES

come on microsoft. Stop toying with me
Click to expand...


Win10 is coming this summer.
Hololens is still a a year or two away from a fully functional consumer product, so don't get your hopes up yet. And that will only happen if devs are interested in the technology.
And in terms of Android Java and Objective C, that's coming very soon, most likely before Win10 launches. Candy Crush already used that coding tech to get their game onto WP8.1, so it's ready.

I was bummed that they didn't announce or even give us a glimpse of new Win 10 high-end phones.
 
Just sold my Macbook Pro a few weeks ago, and built a windows 8.1 gaming desktop. I am VERY excited for Windows 10. I think Microsoft has something really good going on with these announcements. That being said, I don't think I will be exchanging my iPhone 6+ for a Windows phone anytime soon. If Microsoft reaches parity in the app category, with either major platform (Android, or IOS) I may think about it.

Windows phone as a desktop, could be a really cool feature, hopefully it's not marred by slow performance issues.
 
robostig said:
Just sold my Macbook Pro a few weeks ago, and built a windows 8.1 gaming desktop. I am VERY excited for Windows 10. I think Microsoft has something really good going on with these announcements. That being said, I don't think I will be exchanging my iPhone 6+ for a Windows phone anytime soon. If Microsoft reaches parity with either major platform (Android, or IOS) I may think about it.

The windows phone as a desktop, could be a really cool feature, hopefully it's not marred by slow performance issues.
Click to expand...

if Windows 10 also brings with it DX12, that gaming rig will be great. seen some tests and stuff over at anandtech showcasing DX12 and as gamers, we should see a dramatic performance improvement :D
 
Having downloaded it already for a quick look, this appears to be targeted at web developers, and IDEs such as Sublime Text, Webstorm, and Atom. Although it includes support for ASP.NET v5, I'm not at all convinced that it includes back-end development unless it's using node.js. Will have to play more to see.
 
Cuban Missles said:
But you still have to pay for a subscription service to Microsoft. I still cant get my self to do that with MS or Adobe or anyone else.

I buy my music, no subscription
I buy my software, no subscription
I watch TV, no subscription
I rent movies one time or buy them, no subscription

Only subscription is for internet and cell service, cant buy those.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean, but in reality there is little different, most of it is just the way you think.

I mean, I don't subscribe to fuel for my car or food that I eat, however, I have to keep working to keep getting money to keep paying for things.

If it's something you always use or always need, in reality if you subscribe a small amount or, from time to time pay a large amount the end result is often very similar.

It's just that we are not used to this type of payment for this type of thing.
Some things, we are used to paying for bit by bit, other things we are more used to paying a lump sum in one go.
Does not mean either method is cheaper than the other.
 
LordVic said:
if Windows 10 also brings with it DX12, that gaming rig will be great. seen some tests and stuff over at anandtech showcasing DX12 and as gamers, we should see a dramatic performance improvement :D
Click to expand...

I KNOW!! DX12 is going to be gigantic!! Especially since my rig has an 8 core i7 processor!
 
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