While many of us will have already moved on to a combination of Google Docs, Dropbox and other apps, there’s still a place for Microsoft’s Office suite, or at least that’s what the company hopes, anyway. For the past 12 months or so, Microsoft as a company has undergone many changes, and it seems that their new CEO, Satya Nadella understands that they need services on every platform available if they want to remain relevant. As such, we recently saw Microsoft Office appear on Android, now three of the key apps – Excel, Word and PowerPoint – are breaking out of their Beta test period, now available to all on Android.
Unlike previous attempts by Microsoft, these three apps are now available to use without the need of a pesky Office365 subscription. Which is important, because now Android users are more likely to use these apps, and now that Dropbox and Microsoft have partnered together where Office is concerned, there’s even more likelihood that Android users will pic up these services again. Some time ago now, Microsoft released these apps for Android tablets in a beta form, and these apps have evolved from those. They’re apparently much easier to use with a phone due to some tweaks to the overall layout, and while they aren’t exactly Material Design focused, these apps do have a fairly flat and modern design that most users will find appealing.
With these new apps on Android, Microsoft takes one more step towards becoming the cross-platform company they should have been years ago. Google Docs and Google Drive wouldn’t be anywhere near as popular as it is today if it weren’t available across all major platforms, and it’s nice to see Microsoft finally realize this. As Cortana heads to Android, and Windows 10 embraces smartphones from almost any platform, it looks like Microsoft finally understands what users are looking for in 2015. All three of these apps, Excel, PowerPoint and Word are available from Microsoft’s Google Play page at the source link below.