Microsoft Launches New Office Apps For iOS, Signup For Android Preview Today
Earlier this year, Microsoft launched its Office suite of apps (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) on the iPad in an effort to bring the Office experience everywhere.
Today, the company has updated its iOS apps to support the iPhone. The update also brings additional features and functionality to the iPad versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
All three apps take advantage of a "vertical ribbon" across the top of the screen that puts all the editing tools within thumbs reach.
In addition to expanding its apps to the iPhone, Microsoft has also decided to offer the core Office experience on iOS to all its users for free. This means that Office users will no longer be required to have an Office 365 subscription to access basic creation and editing features on iOS.
However, many of the advanced editing capabilities will be reserved for Office 365 subscribers, who will also get 1TB of OneDrive storage alongside their subscription.
Alongside the new iOS version of the apps, Microsoft has also announced a preview of Office for Android tablets. The Android version looks pretty much identical to the iPad version. Office for Android will only support devices running KitKat or later. Microsoft is accepting signups for the Android preview today and the company plans to start rolling out the preview in December.
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are available as free downloads from the App Store. The apps require a device running iOS 7 or later and they are not compatible with the iPhone 4S.
[via Microsoft Blog]
