Office Invades Android

Microsoft has launched the official Office Mobile for 365 app on Android as promised. Similar to the iOS version, users will need an Office 365 subscription to be able to use it for both viewing and editing of documents.

In order to use it, you’ll have to be an Office 365 subscriber, with plans starting at $60 a year for a single user.

 

Like every other Microsoft app, Office for Android has a beautiful UI, and the necessary changes have been made to adapt it to the Holo interface of the OS while keeping a consistent look across all platforms. It has considerably more editing options than Google’s Drive app, and you can view all Office documents and create and edit Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files.

Any offline edits you make are synced to the cloud, and a list of recently-updated documents syncs with the desktop version of Office 365. There’s also a sharing and commenting system, and access to SkyDrive and Sharepoint, with word documents downloaded from SkyDrive resuming from where you left off previously on mobile, PC, or tablet.
Speaking of tablets, Office Mobile does not have a tablet version, which was a glaring omission on iOS as well. This is presumably to keep the app exclusive to Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets.

So, is the much-anticipated arrival worth the admission price for actually using Office Mobile on Android? If you’re already an Office 365 subscriber, then it’s a no-brainer.