Microsoft had made a preview version of these apps available for Android users about five weeks ago, and now these apps are live.
Microsoft’s popular Word, PowerPoint and Excel apps are now officially available on Android smartphones and tablets. The company had earlier released a preview version for its Office Suite (which includes all these apps) available to users. Microsoft’s Kirk Koenigsbauer, Corporate VP for the Office Client Applications and Services team made the announcement via a blog post on Microsoft’s Office Blogs. Office for Android will be available in India, US, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Russia, Colombia, UK, Germany, Japan and Turkey.
The blog post says that the preview versions allowed the company to test its apps on over 1,900 Android devices in 83 countries. Koenigsbauer wrote that the apps have been specifically redesigned for smaller screens, but would still be familiar to users who have worked with the desktop versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The company had made the preview versions available five weeks ago.
Microsoft’s apps on Android of course support the company’s OneDrive cloud storage platform, but users can also use other storage options like Dropbox, Google Drive and Box. Microsoft’s apps run on Android phones running Android 4.0 and above, but Android M is not currently supported. It would be fair to assume though that Microsoft will add support for the next version of Android by the time Google makes it official.
Microsoft has partnered with 30 OEMs to preload its applications on Android devices. Companies like Samsung, Sony and LG are part of this initiative. The effort is of course a part of Microsoft’s ongoing push towards services and getting more users to use its products.
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