Last Thursday, Microsoft unveiled three new Office apps for the iPad. And now, Microsoft has made its Office apps for iPhone and Android, completely free to use.
Office was available for iPhone and Android phones before, but at then, users were unable to create or edit documents without an Office 365 subscription, which starts at $7 per month. But now, Office for iPhone and Android is completely free and it comes with three apps – Word, Excel, PowerPoint. It is to be noted here that Office Mobile is now free for home use and business users will need to subscribe to the Office 365 plan if they want to use it.
However, in Word, you can type, search, add comments and perform some basic font formatting. In Excel, you can search, filter and perform five simple mathematical functions. In PowerPoint, you will be able to open existing PowerPoint files and edit slide text, but you won’t be able to any new presentations.
The home page of the iPhone and Android app includes the ability to open any document found in your OneDrive. A “Recent” section will display what you’ve been working on, and an “Open” tab to get back to everything you’ve ever created in the cloud. Additionally, you’ll find a “New” tab, where you can create documents from scratch.
The move to make Office for iPhone and Android free is presumably to combat Apple and Google’s offerings. Apple makes Pages, Keynote, and Numbers software available to new iPhone users for free, and Google makes Google Docs within Google Drive available across all platforms. However, Office Mobile app is available on the iTunes App Store and Google Play, and you can download it for free.
Sources: Microsoft, iTunes App Store (Office Mobile), Google Play (Office Mobile)
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