The All-in-one Office app Now available for Android and iOS
Microsoft's new Office app, which combines Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, is out of public preview and now generally available for anyone on Android and iOS phones.
The Office app delivers:
- 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 all the capabilities of the existing mobile apps.
- Integrating Microsoft's 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.
Microsoft has made several enhancements since the public preview—such as support for third-party storage services including Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and iCloud; templates to help you create new documents, spreadsheets, and presentations; and general performance improvements.
Today’s release is also available for download on Android tablets with limited support. The Office app for Android is fully optimized for tablets when working with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents and Microsoft is committed to making the rest of the Android app as well as the iOS app fully optimized for tablets soon.
In the next few months, Microsoft promised to add three new features:
- Word Dictation—Let Word turn your voice into written text and use voice commands and simple toolbars to apply the right formatting and punctuation you need.
- Excel Cards View—View and edit data in an Excel table row in a simple card format so you do not have span across columns that extend beyond the limits of the screen.
- Outline to PowerPoint—Write your presentation content as a simple outline and let PowerPoint Designer turn it into presentable slides with the proper styling, formatting, and iconography of your content.
The app is free to use, even without signing in. However, signing in with a Microsoft Account or connecting to a third-party storage service will enable you to access and store documents in the cloud. An Office 365 or Microsoft 365 subscription will also unlock various premium features, consistent with those in the current Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps.