People are relying on mobile devices more than ever, and this includes getting work done.
Among the multitude of production apps available in the market, the most notable would be Microsoft Office's apps that include Word, Excel and PowerPoint. While diversifying apps is good, having one super app is a thrill on its own.
In an update, Microsoft announced that it is merging the three apps into one single and centralized app.
On its Microsoft 365 blog announcement, Microsoft said that:
"Today, we’re announcing a new mobile experience for Office that combines three of the suite’s most popular apps—Word, Excel, and PowerPoint—into a single go-to app for mobile productivity. Now you no longer need to download each app separately and will have everything you need to be productive on the go."
This is "a simple, integrated experience that puts the tools you need for working on a mobile device at the forefront of the experience," said Microsoft on its blog post.
"Doing so brings all of your Office documents together in one place, reduces the need to switch between multiple apps, and significantly reduces the amount of space used on your phone compared to multiple installed apps."
On top of that, Microsoft also added new capabilities that harness the strengths of mobile devices, such as the camera, to enable users create content in uniquely mobile ways, as well as introducing the Actions Pane where users can do many common mobile tasks from one place.
Microsoft introduces this integrated Office mobile app in public preview for Android and iOS.
Using the app, users can create new documents, presentations or spreadsheets as well as edit and view existing documents. They can also "snap a picture of a document" and make it into an editable Word file, create and sign PDFs or "transform tables from a printed page into an Excel spreadsheet."
Initially, the app is available only on mobile phones, with Microsoft planning to also release it to tablets as well.
By making the three Office apps merged into one, Microsoft hopes that it can appeal more users. While the individual apps have been very popular on mobile, each downloaded by over 1 billion users on Android, the case is different on iOS.
On Apple's platform, Google productivity apps like Docs, Slides and Sheets are all ranking higher that Microsoft's offerings.
In the announcement, Microsoft also said that it has updated Microsoft Teams with more features; mentioned Microsoft Project and about Chromium-based Microsoft Edge general availability; announced a public preview of the Fluid Framework end user experience and a private preview for developers; an update to Cortana; a more AI-centric Office apps; among others.