Microsoft Announces New Office App for Windows 10

Microsoft today announced a new Office app for Windows 10. It will replace the My Office app that currently ships with the system.

“Starting today, we’re bringing the new Office.com experience to Windows 10 in the form of an app, simply called Office,” Microsoft corporate vice president Jared Spataro announced. “It’s now available to Windows Insiders (Fast) and will roll out to all Windows 10 users soon. The app is free and it can be used with any Office 365 subscription, the latest perpetual versions of Office, or Office Online, the free web-based version of Office for consumers.”

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

The Office app provides the following benefits:

Quickly switch between apps. The Office app provides shortcuts to all of your Office applications so you can access them from a single place.

Get back into your work. The Office app also provides shortcuts to our most recently used documents, pinned documents, and documents shared with you.

Find what you need. Thanks to integrated Microsoft Search, you can find the apps, documents, people, and sites you need quickly and easily.

Tailor it to your organization. Organizations can brand the Office app and add shortcuts to their own line of business (LOB) applications for a more personalized experience.

The Office app is certainly nicer-looking and more useful than the old My Office app. But I can’t imagine that many users will actually use this thing regularly, and for the same reasons. It’s just not necessary, thanks to OneDrive integration with Windows 10 and the Most Recently Used (MRU) document functionality in all Office applications.

 

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 28 comments

  • Tony Barrett

    19 December, 2018 - 12:05 pm

    <p>Just another app to try and get people to subscribe to Office365. Win10 is just a conduit to all these subscription services, which is why MS can't afford for it to fail. It's not about Windows anymore, it's all about the subscriptions!</p>

    • shameermulji

      19 December, 2018 - 1:46 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#384274">In reply to ghostrider:</a></em></blockquote><p>Not just a Windows problem. That's happening on all major platforms</p>

  • Dan1986ist

    Premium Member
    19 December, 2018 - 12:07 pm

    <p>Is Office.com a PWA now or something like that? Also, Others in Windows Insider Fast ring, have any of you seen the new app yet? I type in Office in the Microsoft Store on Windows Insider Fast device and the new Office app doesn't show up. </p>

    • Usman

      Premium Member
      19 December, 2018 - 12:20 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#384275">In reply to Dan1986ist:</a></em></blockquote><p>That seems to be the case, wouldn't be surprised considering its a fairly easy thing to do. The Office suite is all rewritten in React. </p><p><br></p><p>Using a client side javascript framework is usually the go to for building web based applications including be it electron, cordova/phonegap and now PWAs.</p><p><br></p>

    • will

      Premium Member
      19 December, 2018 - 12:28 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#384275">In reply to Dan1986ist:</a></em></blockquote><p>I believe you will see PWA Office soon. They are doing lots of work on the web side, even more than the client side.</p>

  • Passinttd

    19 December, 2018 - 12:14 pm

    <p>I suppose this would explain why the 'Show recently used files in Quick access' option on my file explorer turned itself off and wont allow itself to be turned back on… Fun times.</p>

  • webdev511

    Premium Member
    19 December, 2018 - 12:25 pm

    <p>Not really a whole lot different than the default landing page when you log into Office 365…</p>

  • christian.hvid

    19 December, 2018 - 12:30 pm

    <p><em>"</em><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">But I can’t imagine that many users will actually use this thing regularly"</em></p><p><br></p><p>Why not? If this is indeed Office.com wrapped inside an app, it would be a perfect fit for anyone who really doesn't need full fat desktop Office but also doesn't enjoy living in the browser. As an added bonus, it could finally put the Windows 10 email app out to pasture.</p>

  • dcdevito

    19 December, 2018 - 12:49 pm

    <p>So it's an Office.com web wrapper? In a way though I like it…a central hub to all your Office work and files. It's one thing I like about Google Drive. Although it's befuddling to see a new app where OneDrive seems like a natural fit for this. </p>

    • igor engelen

      19 December, 2018 - 1:58 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#384294">In reply to dcdevito:</a></em></blockquote><p>I agree with this. If they're going to build a central hub they should build one that can contain all their products /services.</p>

  • skane2600

    19 December, 2018 - 12:51 pm

    <p>As we've discussed before, Integrated search is not a good idea (at least not for users).</p>

  • Winner

    19 December, 2018 - 1:31 pm

    <p>Why do I feel like the ever increasing complexity is going in the wrong direction?</p><p>I just finished a bunch of training videos for SharePoint and Office 365 and OneDrive for work and I don't know how ordinary people would be able to make use of all that complexity. You almost need to understand the underlying architecture of everything to even use it properly.</p>

  • Thom77

    19 December, 2018 - 2:41 pm

    <p>Am i the only one that cringes when i see the term "app" </p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

    • Winner

      19 December, 2018 - 4:27 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#384359">In reply to Thom77:</a></em></blockquote><p>We used to say "application".</p><p>When Apple came out with the iPhone, they used the term "App". I took that to mean "a light program for a smartphone device". And to me that made some sense.</p><p>But then Microsoft got Apple envy and started using that term all over the place. Which is not what I would have preferred. I like "Apps" on phones and tablets and "Applications" on computers. But now we are where we are and it's a mess.</p>

    • Sam Brien

      19 December, 2018 - 8:57 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#384359">In reply to Thom77:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>“Application” would imply that the software goes to solving a problem.</p><p><br></p><p>This “app” however goes towards solving nothing.</p>

      • locust infested orchard inc

        19 December, 2018 - 10:04 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#384408">In reply to Sam_Brien:</a></em></blockquote><p>The "app" serves one purpose, and one purpose only, to determine who has more e-penises than their fellow members in their social group.</p>

        • TheFerrango

          20 December, 2018 - 2:50 am

          <blockquote><a href="#384423"><em>In reply to locust infested orchard inc:</em></a></blockquote><p>I feel like a single, bigger e-penis would be better than a plethora of micro e-penises that are only good for one shot, though.</p><p><br></p><p>Wait, what were we talking about?</p>

    • locust infested orchard inc

      19 December, 2018 - 9:58 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#384359">In reply to Thom77:</a></em></blockquote><p>I'm in the same boat as you. Whenever I hear the utterance of the word "app", it makes me feel to smash their device with a baseball bat.</p><p><br></p><p>For me, "app" is the contraction of the word "appshit" (c.f. apeshit).</p>

  • jchampeau

    Premium Member
    19 December, 2018 - 5:16 pm

    <p>Outlook used to be a piece of desktop software and everyone understood it. Office used to be a suite of applications, not an app that duplicates a bunch of existing features and functions. Skype refers to two separate products and so does OneDrive. Even Windows can mean software that either runs Windows applications or doesn't. Seriously, why do they do this kind of thing over and over and over?</p>

  • PeterC

    20 December, 2018 - 2:07 am

    <p>So this is the office gateway app for the upcoming edge/chromium based browser and lite windows brigade of hardware?</p>

  • TheFerrango

    20 December, 2018 - 2:51 am

    <p>So it's becoming the new Office Toolbar from the 90s</p>

  • masud0011

    11 March, 2019 - 10:00 am

    <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I suppose this would explain why the 'Show recently used files in Quick access' option on my file explorer turned itself off and wont allow itself to be turned back on… </span><a href="https://semplehealthtips.blogspot.com/2019/03/benefits-of-drinking-water-for-skin.html&quot; target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Fun times</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">.</span></p>

  • arenaanimation

    25 April, 2019 - 7:22 am

    <p> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">just another </span><a href="just another app" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">app</a></p>

  • mahiuddin

    03 May, 2019 - 5:57 am

    <p><a href="www.whatifhub.com" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Wow</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">, This is great . Hopefully it will help us to increase productivity especially who runs </span><a href="www.whatifhub.com" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Blog</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">.</span></p>

  • uniquefriends

    04 May, 2019 - 9:27 am

    <p>thank you for this valuable<a href="https://uniquefriends.in/&quot; target="_blank"> information</a></p>

  • antimnafak24

    05 June, 2019 - 8:16 am

    <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Thanks For</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span><a href="www.tech-anti.blogspot.com" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Information</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></p>

  • prem123

    16 October, 2019 - 3:52 am

    <p>now i am ms office 2010 user but in future sure i will try this one.. microsoft is love.</p>

  • MAHARGHA

    01 June, 2022 - 3:37 pm

    <p><a href="https://govtjobcenter.in/railway-tc-recruitment-2022/&quot; target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Wow</a>, This is great . Hopefully it will help us to increase productivity especially who runs&nbsp;<a href="https://govtjobcenter.in/&quot; target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 110, 206); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Blog</a>.</p><p><br></p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC