Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Microsoft Office App Released for iPhone, Combines Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
68,532
39,366



Following beta testing, Microsoft today released its new Office app for iPhone, bringing together Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in a single app.

microsoft-office-app-2020.jpg

The main benefit of the unified Office app is that it requires only a single download with a much smaller file size, but it does have a few unique features, including camera integration for easily converting photos of documents and tables into Word and Excel files. The app also has a new Actions pane that supports a number of common tasks like signing PDFs and scanning QR codes.

Microsoft explains some of the benefits of the new Office app in a blog post:
The Office app delivers several key benefits including:

- Combining Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in a way that simplifies the experience with fewer apps to download or switch between. It requires far less phone storage than installing individual apps while maintaining virtually all the capabilities of the existing mobile apps people already know and use.

- Integrating our Lens technology to unlock the power of the camera with capabilities like converting images into editable Word and Excel documents, scanning PDFs, and capturing whiteboards with automatic digital enhancements to make the content easier to read.

- Adding new functionality for common tasks people often encounter when working on a phone--things like making quick notes, signing PDFs, scanning QR codes, and transferring files between devices.
Click to expand...
The new Microsoft Office app is available on the App Store for the iPhone and on the Google Play Store for Android. Microsoft says the app will be optimized to support the iPad soon. The app is free to use, even without signing in, but an Office 365 subscription starting at $6.99 per month is required to unlock premium features.


Microsoft's standalone Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps remain available and were recently updated with a simplified three-tab layout.

(Thanks, Michaël!)

Article Link: Microsoft Office App Released for iPhone, Combines Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/02/19/microsoft-office-app-released/
Last edited:
What's interesting to me is that Office used to be available through a single app, and Microsoft broke it into individual apps a few years ago. You don't often see a company - especially one this size - make a change like that only to later change back. I wonder what they saw in their internal data to prompt this? It can't all be about app size, can it?
 
  • Like
Reactions: DeepIn2U, Archmage, Bsgreubel and 2 others
Achiever said:
What's interesting to me is that Office used to be available through a single app, and Microsoft broke it into individual apps a few years ago. You don't often see a company - especially one this size - make a change like that only to later change back. I wonder what they saw in their internal data to prompt this? It can't all be about app size, can it?
Click to expand...

You can see the reviews from 5 years ago in the app reviews!
 
  • Like
Reactions: DeepIn2U, Archmage, decypher44 and 3 others
Looks nice. I have not tried it yet but I like the idea. Google should consider doing the same with Docs and Sheets.
 
Achiever said:
What's interesting to me is that Office used to be available through a single app, and Microsoft broke it into individual apps a few years ago. You don't often see a company - especially one this size - make a change like that only to later change back. I wonder what they saw in their internal data to prompt this? It can't all be about app size, can it?
Click to expand...
Office has never been available as a single app, well for desktop that is. Unless you are referring to Microsoft Works.
 
  • Like
Reactions: adib
Amazing Iceman said:
Only for iPhone. Unacceptable, considering it's fairly easy to make a Universal app nowadays.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm quite disappointed. As someone with an older 16GB iPad Air 2, I had to delete the Office apps because they take up too much storage.

Hopefully, they'll offer it in the future?
 
I’ve used the Office app beta for a while now. It’s great to use when you just want to open documents/spreadsheets/presentations. Editing theses doc types on the Office app is not friendly. The dedicated apps work better to edit. Viewing a doc in their dedicated apps take longer to open.
Overall, they have their perks.
 
CoolBradG said:
Yeah, I'm quite disappointed. As someone with an older 16GB iPad Air 2, I had to delete the Office apps because they take up too much storage.

Hopefully, they'll offer it in the future?
Click to expand...
Ouch... I feel the pain! I have had a 16 gb iPhone. Micromanaging memory was painful.
 
I would love this on the iPad. Do people actually use these apps on their phones? I find them not that great on the phone interface, but love the iPad layout.
 
1144557 said:
Thats the million-dollar question here. Are there any differences
Click to expand...
Not seeing any so far, other than the new stuff that is added.
[automerge]1582129659[/automerge]
lmcrael said:
I would love this on the iPad. Do people actually use these apps on their phones? I find them not that great on the phone interface, but love the iPad layout.
Click to expand...
Useful for VERY cursory review of track-changed docs, or to make a minor edit to an email attachment and send it along. I don't think it's very practical to create real documents using a phone, but it's great for review on-the-run.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Archmage
Amazing Iceman said:
Only for iPhone. Unacceptable, considering it's fairly easy to make a Universal app nowadays.
[automerge]1582128084[/automerge]

Some drive north, others south...
Click to expand...

The article literally says...
"The new Microsoft Office app is available on the App Store for the iPhone and on the Google Play Store for Android devices. Microsoft says the app will be fully optimized to support the iPad soon."

Where did you get "Only for iPhone" from??
 
  • Like
  • Disagree
Reactions: tooloud10, DeepIn2U, decypher44 and 3 others
Mr. Dee said:
Office has never been available as a single app, well for desktop that is. Unless you are referring to Microsoft Works.
Click to expand...
I never said it was a single Desktop app. The article refers to the iPhone app (and soon to be iPad equivalent). Office productivity on iOS was originally all contained within 1 app.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SEmAN and Archmage
This is a very welcome change! I can’t wait for it to come to iPad. As someone who constantly bounces between the three apps on an older ram-challenged iPad I’m sure only running one app instead of 3 will result in it having to reload less often and be a huge performance boost to my workflow
 
Bsgreubel said:
The article literally says...
"The new Microsoft Office app is available on the App Store for the iPhone and on the Google Play Store for Android devices. Microsoft says the app will be fully optimized to support the iPad soon."

Where did you get "Only for iPhone" from??
Click to expand...
When I installed it, it said it's only optimized to run on an iPhone. On my iPad it required me to zoom in to see it larger. So at this time, it's only usable on an iPhone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: konqerror and Victor Mortimer
himanshumodi said:
Ouch... I feel the pain! I have had a 16 gb iPhone. Micromanaging memory was painful.
Click to expand...
Been there as well and it was even worse. I now only buy iPhones with 256Gb+. I'm definitely due for a new iPad soon, but I'm waiting to see the new Pro lineup.

1144557 said:
"Microsoft says the app will be optimized to support the iPad soon "
Click to expand...
I missed that as well, thanks for pointing it out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back