Microsoft Introduces Unified Office App for iOS and Android

[MacRumors]

Microsoft today announced a new Office app for iOS and Android that brings together the functionality of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in a single app. The new app, currently available as a preview, simplifies working with different types of documents while also bringing in some new features to enhance productivity.

The Office app provides a simple, integrated experience that puts the tools you need for working on a mobile device at the forefront of the experience. We started by combining the existing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint mobile apps into a single app. Doing so brings all of your Office documents together in one place, reduces the need to switch between multiple apps, and significantly reduces the amount of space used on your phone compared to multiple installed apps. We then added new capabilities that harness the strengths of mobile devices, such as the camera, to enable you to create content in uniquely mobile ways. Finally, we added a new Actions Pane that helps you accomplish many of the common mobile tasks you need to do all from one place.

Camera integration lets you easily convert photos of documents and tables into Word and Excel files, while PowerPoint presentations can easily import photos from your camera roll. The new Actions pane supports a number of common tasks like creating PDFs from documents or photos, signing PDFs with your finger, scanning QR codes, and file transfers.

Office for mobile is available in public preview today, with the iOS preview running through Apple's TestFlight program and limited to the first 10,000 users. Users can gets basic access to the preview with no sign-in required, but if you log in with a work, school, or personal Microsoft account you'll get access to all of your cloud-based documents. The new Office app is currently only avaliable for phones, but it will be extended to tablets in the future, and Microsoft says it will continue to support and improve its existing standalone Office mobile apps.

Article Link: Microsoft Introduces Unified Office App for iOS and Android

 

[Sethal]

This just makes sense.

 

[Sandstorm]

Definitely looks good.

 

[fmcshan]

Typo in the first line. Already not looking good.


Edit: the testflight app says it’s compatible with iPhone and iPad, but when I launch the app on my iPad I get the iPhone version. (see photo 2)

 

[benshive]

Typo in the first line. Already not looking good.

Not a big deal but I'm surprised a typo like that isn't caught. Especially for a company the size of Microsoft, I kind of just assumed that everything that hit the public was read over at least a few times by a couple different people.

 

[oneMadRssn]

I like this. Almost everyone I know with MS Office on their iPhones/iPads has all the apps in a single folder anyway.

Google needs to do the same.

 

[Steve121178]

Looks very promising. Hopefully it doesn't end up full of colossal bloat like all Microsoft apps.

 

[JosephKing]

This is either going to end up being absolutely outstanding, or absolutely horrible. There will be no in-between...

 

[spencers]

Typo in the first line. Already not looking good.

Is that sarcasm?

 

[KazuSnow]

Typo in the first line. Already not looking good.

They used the french spelling it's how you know it's quality
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[saberahul]

This is either going to end up being absolutely outstanding, or absolutely horrible. There will be no in-between...

Thank you for that insight.

app looks beautiful and so far works well. Need to test it out to see how it holds up which I’ll know in a week. As someone who uses Microsoft apps on the iPad for more than 3 hours a day, hoping that this can replace the constant need to switch between PowerPoint and excel.

 

[lmcrael]

Great idea, just downloaded it on my iPad Pro and its not optimized for the iPad

Will def download if they make an iPad version.

 

[wordup60]

Typo in the first line. Already not looking good.

Am I missing something? Perfectly correct English as far as I can tell.

 

[Glockworkorange]

Makes sense. I'm a heavy Office user on desktop, but rarely have use for it on mobile.

 

[robbieduncan]

Does this do anything to unify the features of each "mode"? Or does opening a Word document essentially open Word in the app? For example can tables in Word documents in this app access Excel functionality? (I know you can do this on Desktop work by embedding an Excel document via OLE but that's different)

 

[5097842]

I use (and like a lot) Office 365 on the Mac. But aside from Outlook, do people really use Office on their phones? The only time I ever use them is to open attachments for viewing. Can't see getting any Office work done on a phone sized screen. I'm sure people do or they wouldn't make them, just not me.

 

[Steve121178]

I use (and like a lot) Office 365 on the Mac. But aside from Outlook, do people really use Office on their phones? The only time I ever use them is to open attachments for viewing. Can't see getting any Office work done on a phone sized screen. I'm sure people do or they wouldn't make them, just not me.

It's a convenience thing. I'd never use my phone to create new documents but the apps are handy for some occasional Excel/Word use on my phone/iPad but it's very rare. I mostly use the apps to view documents.

 

[robbieduncan]

It's a convenience thing. I'd never use my phone to create new documents but the apps are handy for some occasional Excel/Word use on my phone/iPad but it's very rare. I mostly use the apps to view documents.

Exactly. Sometimes it's handy to add a row to or update a cell in a spreadsheet on the phone. For anything more I'd probably grab my iPad

 

[shyam09]

Google needs to do the same.

Google would rather create hype about a new app that unifies their Google Docs stuff, and then either release it with minimal updates or just can the project all together. 😂

 

[AndyMacAndMic]

Typo in the first line. Already not looking good.

https://grammarist.com/spelling/program-programme/

 

[StellarVixen]

Everyone’s goal just seems to be cutting costs lately. No one cares about user experience anymore.

 

[ersan191]

Only 355MB too - not bad

 

[Dustman]

Soooo Microsoft Works is making a comeback?

 

[JosephKing]

Thank you for that insight.

app looks beautiful and so far works well. Need to test it out to see how it holds up which I’ll know in a week. As someone who uses Microsoft apps on the iPad for more than 3 hours a day, hoping that this can replace the constant need to switch between PowerPoint and excel.

Thank you for thanking me!

 

[Glockworkorange]

I use (and like a lot) Office 365 on the Mac. But aside from Outlook, do people really use Office on their phones? The only time I ever use them is to open attachments for viewing. Can't see getting any Office work done on a phone sized screen. I'm sure people do or they wouldn't make them, just not me.

I'm a heavy desktop Office user. I think I edited a Word doc via iPhone once a few years ago in a pinch.

Other than that, zero use for Word, Excel or PowerPoint on a phone.
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Google would rather create hype about a new app that unifies their Google Docs stuff, and then either release it with minimal updates or just can the project all together. 😂

Or make it unusable on the iPad (i.e., Google Docs in the past).