Microsoft’s Unified Office App Comes to iPhones

Microsoft first announced a new, unified app for Office users back in November. At the time, the company released the app as a preview to Office Insiders. The app was recently made available for those on Android, and Microsoft is today announcing that the app is now generally available.

That also means the new Office app is now available for everyone on iPhone, with iPad support expected to come in the future.

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Microsoft says the company experienced a lot of interest from customers since the preview was announced. “After the announcement, tens of thousands of people immediately rushed to get the Android and iOS apps, causing us to hit the 10,000- user limit in Apple’s TestFlight program in just a few hours,” the company noted.

For those unfamiliar, Microsoft’s new Office app brings together Word, Excel, and PowerPoint into a single mobile app. The new app also includes useful features like Sticky Notes and Actions like being able to sign PDFs, built-in Lens functionality for scanning documents, etc.

Microsoft says the company has also added new features like support for third-party storage services including Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and iCloud with the general availability of the app. It’s even promising a number of interesting new features — more on that here.

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Conversation 19 comments

  • Thomas Parkison

    19 February, 2020 - 12:01 pm

    <p>I replaced the old individual apps with the single app on my iPhone. Looks like a solid app.</p>

  • Vladimir Carli

    Premium Member
    19 February, 2020 - 1:10 pm

    <p>I can't find it on the app store. Maybe is US only?</p>

    • daniel7878

      19 February, 2020 - 2:38 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#521802">In reply to Vladimir:</a></em></blockquote><p>I don't have it either as of right now. I'm in US.</p>

    • lwetzel

      Premium Member
      19 February, 2020 - 3:46 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#521802">In reply to Vladimir:</a></em></blockquote><p>Bring this page up on iPhone then click the " now available " link in the article. It will bring up web page that has a link to connect to app store. There you go!</p>

      • Vladimir Carli

        Premium Member
        19 February, 2020 - 5:19 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#521829">In reply to lwetzel:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>thank you. I tried and it worked. By why is not possible to find it by searching for it in the store?</p>

        • simont

          Premium Member
          20 February, 2020 - 7:43 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#521845">In reply to Vladimir:</a></em></blockquote><p>You can't find it if you are using and iPad, only with an iPhone</p>

  • mattbg

    Premium Member
    19 February, 2020 - 3:59 pm

    <p>Interested to see how this works, but to be honest I wish their Outlook iOS app separated the Mail, Calendar, and Contacts functions into separate apps.</p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      20 February, 2020 - 3:00 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#521830">In reply to mattbg:</a></em></blockquote><p>Why, if I may ask? I have it on Android and like having it all in one place. I just put the calendar and mail widgets on the home screen, so I rarely even need to go into the app itself.</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      20 February, 2020 - 8:09 am

      I would kind of prefer this experience. Seems like you could have different app icons that basically open the app to those views. Deep links or whatever.

  • Kingv84

    19 February, 2020 - 5:58 pm

    <p>It is funny that they had an all in one app before, then they split it and now they put them back together again. I wonder if the standalone apps are going away. </p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      20 February, 2020 - 8:05 am

      I doubt it, since they’ll want them on tablet and it’s no extra effort. This is a good solution on phone for most people.

  • truerock2

    19 February, 2020 - 6:50 pm

    <p>For those who do not remember the 1980s…</p><p><br></p><p>The idea of having a "unified app" seems somewhat not a good idea. Obviously you want to wonder "why".</p><p><br></p><p>Just so you know… if a competitor is getting killed in the technology wars – but, that competitor has a great set of apps that cover most of what people want to do… that competitor can bundle everything together, make it available on other competitors platforms – and, hopefully… make the other competitors platforms irrelevant.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

    • taswinfan

      19 February, 2020 - 8:48 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#521920">In reply to truerock2:</a></em></blockquote><p>So you are saying that it is a smart move by MSFT? Or a bad one? </p>

      • truerock2

        19 February, 2020 - 10:52 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#521928">In reply to taswinfan:</a></em></blockquote><p>I'm not judging anyone here. I think Microsoft, Apple, Google, etc are able to handle themselves in the marketplace.</p><p><br></p><p>As a consumer of technology I feel lucky to have lots of choices in today's marketplace.</p><p><br></p><p>Obviously, Lotus and others tried to take the office-suite approach to the market and Microsoft won that battle in the 1990s by offering a bundle of apps.</p><p><br></p><p>In my opinion, Microsoft should look at all the apps included in Office and Windows 10 and bring together a bundle of about 50 apps that have a clean, consistent GUI akin to Office 2007 (Fluent User).</p><p><br></p><p>This would include everything like Excel, Paint (all the Windows Accessories) – apps like Windows XP Media Player and NetMeeting… etc.</p><p>And also things akin to FileZilla, Handbrake, VLC Media Player</p><p><br></p><p>NetMeeting… I can't explain why Skype is so annoying.</p><p><br></p><p>Then deliver to Windows 10, Linux, iOS, etc</p>

    • Steve78

      20 February, 2020 - 5:37 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#521920">In reply to truerock2:</a></em></blockquote><p>A unified Office app makes total sense though, especially when it's this good already. I've removed the individual bloated monstrosities from my devices now I have this app. </p>

  • BizTechSherpa

    19 February, 2020 - 7:44 pm

    <p>Honestly, I’d really like iPadOS apps that allow multi-window so I could have 2 or more Word or Excel docs opened simultaneously.</p>

  • jdawgnoonan

    19 February, 2020 - 8:21 pm

    <p>I don't install all of the Office tools on my phone and I don't to be forced to. Will the stand alone apps continue to exist?</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      20 February, 2020 - 8:04 am

      Yes.

  • Steve78

    20 February, 2020 - 5:35 am

    <p>It's very good! Too bad there's no OneNote integration and the iPad app can't come soon enough. </p>

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