Guy Gilbert is a senior product manager focused on Office apps across Windows Phone, iPhone, and Android phones.
We are thrilled that Office Mobile for Android phones is available in the U.S. today. Office 365 subscribers will be able to download the app from the Google Play store and activate it. The release of this app shows that we’re committed to keep providing additional value for Office 365 subscribers. Office 365 subscribers will now be able to access, view, and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents with Windows Phone, iPhone and Android phones. Here is the official announcement of the news.
Update 3/27/2014: You no longer need an Office 365 subscription to edit documents with Office Mobile for Android phones. You must update to the latest version of the Office Mobile app to enable free document editing and creation.
I will provide some more detail about Office Mobile for Android phones, and answer some questions that you might have.
If you aren’t already an Office 365 subscriber, you can visit www.office.com to learn more about Office 365 and sign up for a free 30 day trial.
Get Office 365 android apps for productivity on the go. With Office for Android phones and tablets, you can use the whole suite of Office mobile apps. If you have a free Microsoft account or a work or school account with a qualifying Office 365 subscription, you'll have access to the app's extra features. Before you begin, make sure you download the Office for Android apps from the local Android Store. Looking to set up your Office 365 email?
- Jul 17, 2016. Microsoft Office Mobile is the Office companion for phones running Android OS prior to v4.4. You can access, view and edit your Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents from virtually anywhere. Documents look like the originals, thanks to support for charts.
- Download WPS Office free. This cross-platform free office software is available for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS, and comes pre-installed on some Samsung handsets. And are available as.
- Download Excel, Word & PowerPoint apps for your Android devices and stay productive on the go. Introducing the new Office mobile app for Android. Now available in public preview. Read our blog The new Office mobile app combines Word, Excel, and PowerPoint into a single app and introduces new mobile-centric features to make it.
Signing in
When signing in to Office Mobile for Android phones, you can use either a Microsoft Account associated with your Office 365 Home Premium or Office 365 University subscription or an Organization account for all other Office 365 accounts. You can find the full list of eligible Office 365 subscriptions later in this blog post. Don’t worry if you have both types of accounts. You can access cloud storage places, for example SkyDrive and SkyDrive Pro, after you sign-in.
On the recent documents tab, the last documents you worked on from either your PC – running the new Office – or phone will automatically show up here. This is made possible by Office 365’s roaming documents feature so that you always have quick access to the most up to date version of documents you worked on.
On the Locations tab you can see all of your connected cloud storage locations and add additional locations, such as SkyDrive, SkyDrive Pro or SharePoint sites.
Getting around Office Mobile
From the home page you can easily move between your recent documents, your cloud storage locations, and creating a new Word or Excel document. Let’s take a look at each area.
The New Documents tab lets you create a new Word or Excel document from your phone and provides templates to get you started quickly
Ms Office software, free download For Android Mobile Free
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Word
You can read, edit and create new Word documents with Office Mobile. Word is optimized for the small screen of your Android phone, making your documents look great. When you open a Word document from SkyDrive or SkyDrive Pro, it will open at the exact place you left off on your PC or phone. The menu bar disappears a few seconds after opening the document, so that you can truly focus on the content of the document.
The document outline helps you navigate the document outline and comments, which is handy for when you want to review just a particular section of a long document
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Tap the pencil on the menu bar and you get access to the most common editing, commenting and formatting options.
Once you’re done making changes to a Word document, you can share it via email or save the document to SkyDrive.
Excel
Excel worksheets, tables, and charts are beautifully scaled to fit your phone screen. When you update numbers in the spreadsheet, the entire workbook will recalculate. You can also create charts, utilize AutoSum features and filter data in tables.
The Outline View lets you jump to the worksheet, chart or table of your choosing. From the Outline View, you can also quickly navigate to comments.
You can also filter or sort data in tables, in order to get new insights.
Select any range of cells and using the AutoSum feature you can instantly view the total, average, count, maximum and minimum values for that range.
With that same selected data, you can quickly create a chart.
Finally, you can format cells to clearly highlight the most important data.
PowerPoint
Preparing for your upcoming presentation is now more convenient with Office Mobile for Android phones. You can review your slides and edit speaker notes, move and hide slides, and make text edits directly from your phone. In the navigation bar, the Slide Navigator replaces the Viewing Tools from Word and Excel.
In Portrait mode you can see your slides and notes, edit your speaker notes, and practice your presentation.
In Landscape mode, swipe through your presentation and view it.
With the Slide Navigator, you can quickly jump to any slide.
Tap the pencil on the menu bar and you can make changes to the text on the slide.
Settings
When you click the options button while on the Office Mobile home screen, you can access the settings for Office Mobile. The settings page lets you reset Office Mobile and add an identity for comments made on your phone. Resetting Office returns the app to initial state and deletes all your documents and cloud storage locations from the phone.
You can also access help documentation, see the version number, read the Terms of Service and Privacy policy, and select Improve Office Mobile settings.
Frequently asked questions
What are the requirements to use Office Mobile for Android phones?
There are two key requirements:
- You need a qualifying Office 365 subscription plan that includes the Office 2013 desktop applications (see list below). After you download and install Office Mobile for Android phones, just sign in with your Office 365 username and password to activate the app.
- A phone running Android OS 4.0 or greater.
What Office 365 subscriptions include Office Mobile?
Any Office 365 subscription plan that includes the full Office 2013 desktop applications also includes Office Mobile. Specifically, these plans are: Office 365 Home Premium, Office 365 Small Business Premium, Office 365 Midsize Business, Office 365 Enterprise E3 and E4, Office 365 Education A3 and A4, Office 365 ProPlus, and Office 365 University. There are also Office 365 government plans that include Office Mobile.
Additionally, Office 365 trial subscriptions will activate Office Mobile. Please visit Office.com to get a 30 day trial.
What languages and markets will Office Mobile for Android phones be available in?
Office Mobile for Android phones will be available in 33 languages and in 117 markets. Initially, it will only be available in the United States. We will gradually expand to additional markets and languages.
- Office Mobile for Android phones will be available into the following languages: Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (US), Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian , Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian (Latin), Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian.
- Office Mobile for Android phones will be made available in the following markets: Albania, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote D’Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
When will Office Mobile for Android phones be available outside of the United States?
Office Mobile for Android phones will be available in other markets over the next several weeks.
Can I purchase Office Mobile for Android phones in the Google Play store?
The app is available free of charge for Office 365 subscribers only. Office Mobile is a subscription benefit and demonstrates our commitment to add new value to the Office 365 subscription service.
Customers can buy an appropriate Office 365 subscription through regular channels, for example www.office.com. Office 365 subscriptions will not be available for purchase in the Google Play store.
How does Office Mobile for Android phones compare to Office Mobile on Windows Phone 8?
Office Mobile on Windows Phone 8 provides a richer, more integrated experience. Specifically, on Windows Phone 8:
- Office Mobile comes preinstalled;
- Office Mobile is pre-activated, so it will function without an Office 365 subscription;
- Office 365 setup combines the setup of email, Office Mobile and Lync, with a single entry of credentials;
- Office documents received as attachments in email will open directly with the Office Mobile app, not with viewers that may not render the documents correctly;
- Office Mobile has support for saving documents locally on the phone;
- Office Mobile includes searching and filtering for documents;
- Office Mobile supports opening IRM-protected email and documents.
What is the difference between Office Mobile for iPhone and Office Mobile for Android phones?
The functionality of both apps is very similar. The main differences are:
- Office Mobile for Android phones does not include an option to purchase an Office 365 subscription from within the app. Office Mobile for Android phones only has a “sign in” option.
- When accessing documents on an on-premises SharePoint Server, the URL to the document needs to be fully qualified for Office Mobile for Android phones to be able to open it. For instance, https://contoso/monthlyreport.docx will not open, but https://contoso.corpnet.northwind.com/monthlyreport.docx will open in Office Mobile.
How many phones can I install and activate Office Mobile for Android phones on?
Most Office 365 subscriptions grant you the license to install Office Mobile on up to 5 mobile devices, not including Windows Phone devices (which come with a pre-activated version of Office Mobile preinstalled). An Office 365 University subscription grants you the license to install Office Mobile on up to 2 mobile devices.
Is Office Mobile for Android phones available on other devices like Android tablets?
We built Office Mobile for Android phones to ensure a great Office experience when using a small screen device. Therefore, you will not be able to download and install Office Mobile for Android phones on an Android tablet from the Google Play store. If you have an Android tablet, we recommend using the Office Web Apps which provide the best Office experience on a tablet.
Where can I get more information on Microsoft technical support?
Microsoft technical support information on Office 365 subscription is available here: http://support.microsoft.com/get-support/office/office-365-home-premium/mobile/
We hope this new app will be very valuable for Office 365 subscribers with Android phones. Please let us know what you like and what you’d like to see added in the comments below.
— Guy Gilbert
Android OS powered mobile phones with a quad-core or an octa-core processor and 1+ GB RAM are as powerful as computers. Thus, you can use your Android smartphone for professional tasks such as creating new office documents, editing the existing files, composing emails, etc.
Office apps allow you to create powerful spreadsheets, documents, presentations on a smartphone. They enable you to edit documents that you have created on the computer. If you’re traveling or you don’t own a laptop or desktop, you can install an office app on your mobile device and use it to complete the uncompleted work.
Why use an office app?
There are many web applications that allow users to edit office documents online on a PC or a mobile device. These apps provide a great experience only when you are using them on a computer. You won’t be able to make changes to documents or save them to the cloud unless the firm that owns the service has launched an app that supports offline editing
To create or edit documents on your smartphone, you must use an office app which will save your work on the storage memory or the cloud. The disadvantage of using cloud apps is that you won’t be able to use them if you don’t turn on the WiFi or mobile data connection. Offline office apps are as powerful as cloud applications. They save your documents on the ROM or MicroSD card.
Here’s the list of best online and offline Android Office apps for Android devices:
Top 5 Best android office app
Microsoft Office Mobile apps
Microsoft Corporation brought its 3 office apps, PowerPoint, Word, Excel to the Google Play Store in 2015. The apps have registered 50 million downloads within 3 years. MS Office applications are suitable for editing or creating documents. They also allow you to format documents.
MS PowerPoint enables you to create, share and view presentations. It lets you sync presentations to other devices. MS Word enables you to read or edit PDF files, letters, text notes, etc. It has resume reading feature. Hence, you can resume reading the document from the position where you left off.
MS Excel is an app you can use for creating complex spreadsheets. It enables you to apply and use complex formulas in the spreadsheet. The app can an highlight a specific part of the spreadsheet.
The MS Office app works on Android 4.4+ devices and they are free.
Must read: Best email client for Android
WPS Office
WPS is the most popular office app for Android. It has over 100 million users and a nice rating of 4.4 on the Google Play Store. WPS is compatible with Android 4.0+ OS powered mobile devices. Its size on the Play Store is 35 megabytes.
Unlike MS office apps, you don’t have to install individual apps to create and edit documents. Once you install WPS, you can create Presentations, Excel sheets, PDFs or complex MS Word-like documents from a single interface.
The app supports doc, xls, ppt format files you have created with the MS Office suite. It also allows you to work with PDFs created with Adobe app. WPS supports multi-window mode. Hence, its users can edit multiple documents at a same time.
WPS Office encrypts your data before saving it to the phone’s storage memory. It supports Cloud platforms, Miracast, DLNA, WiFi, Miracast technologies.
Also see: Best Android navigation app
Polaris Office + Editor
Polaris is a lightweight office app that packs inside a 50 MB APK file. It is one of the few office apps that can convert handwriting to text. To use this feature, you must write words on the screen with your finger.
Polaris allows users to open documents in a compressed zip file without opening the archive. It includes a search tool and has an option to share documents with friends or co-workers. The app can read various types of office files and it supports over 15 languages.
Polaris ships with 20+ templates. It also provides 200+ formulas which you can use in the spreadsheet. Polaris lets you upload documents to the cloud storage services.
Must read: Best Android Note Taking app
OfficeSuite Pro
OSP is an Android office app with many features. It comes pre-installed in mobiles devices manufactured by leading phone brands.
OfficeSuite Pro provides advanced sorting functions for spreadsheets. It enables users to annotate PDF files with images. It can read aloud text content in PDF files. If you’re using this application, you can change the order of slides in a presentation, scan documents, change date format in spreadsheets, etc.
OfficeSuite Pro lets you copy objects from one document and paste it into another document. It supports MS office file formats and file sharing. OSP supports 50+ languages.
Also check: Best Android budget app
Docs To Go
Docs2Go is the smallest Android Office app on our list. Its APK size is below 6 megabytes. Despite consuming a low amount of storage memory, DTG offers many features and it is suitable for creating complex spreadsheets.
Docs2Go provides a file explorer interface so that you can easily locate and open your documents. It lets you create presentations, PDF, and XLS documents. It supports cloud and desktop syncing. D2G has the option to bookmark files and see the list of recently edited files.
The application lets you upload or import files to DropBox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Box cloud platforms. It provides a “goto” function which you can use to open a specific slide of the presentation. To use Docs To Go, you don’t have to register an account.
Google apps
Google had launched the Google Docs, Slides, and Spreadsheet web applications in 2005. It had launched a dedicated Android app for these three services in 2011.
Android Software Download For Mobile
The search engine giant’s dedicated Google Docs, Slidesdes, and Sheets application has over 10 million users. Although the applications save your files to the Google Drive, they provide an option to make the file available for offline use.
Ms Office software, free download For Android Mobile Free
GD enables you to share documents with other users. It saves the file you’re editing to make sure that you don’t lose the work when the phone shuts down unexpectedly.
Google Office software, free download
Conclusion: MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Docs To Go, OfficeSuite Pro, Polaris, WPS, and Google Slides, Docs, and Sheets are the best office apps for smartphones and tablets. If you’re searching for an app to edit or create documents, make sure you download one of the apps we’ve mentioned above.