Microsoft Office for Android isn’t yet a real thing, unfortunately. However, Microsoft has confirmed plans to bring Office functionality to Android smartphones and tablets in web app form.
Microsoft’s Office web apps will become available through the Chrome browser on Android, allowing users to open, edit and save Office files of all types. The same thing is currently available on Apple’s iPad and Windows 8 tablets, although we patiently await a downloadable app version on both iOS and Android.
Provided an internet connection is present, users will be able to open Office files – .doc, .xml and the like – in the Chrome browser of an Android device. From here editing can be done, files can be saved, shared and sent on. The Web Apps will work in much the same way as Office does on a PC or Mac, albeit with some features missing to make it suitable for mobile devices.
Microsoft also confirmed it will be bringing a new multi-authoring feature to web apps that will allow editing permissions to be given to multiple people, with the app showing who is currently working on a file in real time.
The company has given no indication as to when we can expect Office web app functionality to become available on Android. Downloadable app versions of Office are still rumoured to be coming to both Android and iOS, although we’ve heard little on that front since Microsoft launched its own Surface tablets with Windows 8.