Microsoft is heavily invested in the Android ecosystem. The company offers its own launcher, but also its services. In this category, the best known is still Microsoft Office that the firm offers in the form of a suite of different applications for Android: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, but also Office Lens to scan documents.
All this now changes with the launch of the new Office application
Microsoft has indeed published on the Play Store a new application named “Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint & more” which as the name suggests proposes to bring all the aforementioned applications in a single app. The application is currently in “early access”, that is to say in beta.
In addition to creating or editing Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents from the Android smartphone. Also, the application also integrates Office Lens capabilities to scan documents, whiteboards or even simple QR codes.
Hard to know what Microsoft’s future holds for previous separate applications. The editor seems for the moment focused on its new unified application.
Gizchina News of the week
Android: Word, Excel and PowerPoint – Key Features
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint combined in one app:
- Create, edit, and work together on documents with others in real-time.
- Store and access documents in the cloud or on your device.
- Easily access recent and frequently used files stored in the cloud or on your device.
- Search for documents stored in the cloud, on your phone, or across your organization (if using a work account).
Quickly perform common mobile tasks with built-in Actions:
- Instantly create PDFs from photos or Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.
- Sign PDFs using your finger.
- Quickly jot down ideas and notes with Sticky Notes.
- Easily transfer files between your phone and computer or share instantly with nearby mobile devices.
- Scan QR codes to open links.
Update: It seems that Microsoft has pulled the app from the Play Store, Here is an alternative link (Download).
At work we’ve found that our Microsoft Office 365 Azure web-based Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps have functional differences from the same versions of those apps installed on local machines. This impacts the productivity of our users. I hope this new combined Microsoft Office Suite for Android doesn’t introduce another set of functional differences that cause even more user frustration, confusion, and document management issues.
Not found on the link provided in article
Not really new. It was all in one app (office) when Microsoft first released on play store, then broke it up following Google’s breaking apart it’s app at the time.