Microsoft Office 2013 Web Apps Update Will Add Android Support, Real-Time Collaboration

Microsoft announced upcoming updates for its Office Web apps applications that add Android compatibility and real-time collaboration.

"We enable you to access Office content and tools from your device of choice through cross browser support on those devices where Office isn't installed or available. The full power of the Office Web Apps is already available for Windows 8 tablets and iPads and we will be extending the same capabilities to Android tablets via mobile Chrome browser support," Microsoft said on its Office 365 blog.

That should fix one of the main complaints about Web Apps -- the inability to use them on one of the most common mobile platforms.

"Today, we have co-authoring capabilities across Office Web Apps and the Office desktop applications that allow multiple editors to work in a single document at the same time. We'll introduce real time co-authoring in the Office Web Apps so that all file authors will automatically see presence and edits from others as they happen without needing to refresh," Microsoft added. The functionality has already been added to the PowerPoint Web App and will be coming to the other apps in the next few months.

Android support may not be available for a while, as Microsoft only says it's one of the features that will be rolled out over the next year.

Microsoft's priorities are interesting. It implemented real-time collaboration on PowerPoint first, when that app is probably the least used of the Big Three (including Word and Excel). The company says it's working on new features, like find and replace in Word, but that's something many people would consider an essential function of the program.

The main complaint about Wed Apps has been that they can't do what users want them to do. They don't offer full Office functionality, which makes them a poor rival to free services like Google Drive. Google's web suite doesn't have full Office compatibility either, but it has intuitive and robust features and costs nothing.

Android support is good, but until that's available, Microsoft doesn't have much that's new to offer.