It has become more inconvenient to use Office on a Chromebook. The media found that Microsoft quietly terminated the Android version of Office support for Chromebooks, and users must go online to use the Web version of Office.
Recently, Chromebook users have gradually reported that when the Android version of Office is launched, they will be notified by the system that they should no longer use this application and should connect to Office.com to use the web version. AboutChrombooks got a response from Microsoft this week to confirm this. Microsoft pointed out that in order to provide an optimized experience for ChromeOS/Chromebook users, Microsoft applications (Office and Outlook) will be converted into web experiences (Office.com and Outlook.com) from September 18, 2021. Microsoft said that users can get “extra and high-quality” features, but ChromeOS/Chromebook users must log in with their Microsoft account or an account associated with a Microsoft 365 subscription.
On the other hand, Microsoft still provides the Android version of Office, but it is no longer available for Chromebook users to use the Android version. According to media analysis, this may be that the screen size of Chromebooks is generally larger than that of mobile phones, and there are display problems with the mobile version of Office, and the Office team must optimize it. Although Chromebook shipments continue to increase, the number is still niche, so Microsoft does not want to invest resources in optimizing a dedicated mobile version of Office for Chromebooks.
And this policy direction has also been reflected on the Microsoft announcement webpage. As of July 17, Microsoft has provided instructions for running Office on Chromebooks to download the desired Office applications, such as Word, Outlook or Teams, from the Google Play Store. In the current version, Microsoft requires users to go to www.office.com to log in to the account associated with Microsoft or Microsoft 365.
However, according to The Verge analysis, this is actually one of the major trends, because the performance of Android App running on ChromeOS is inherently bad. The new generation of PWA can be executed across platforms, as long as there is a modern browser, even Google is also pushing ChromeOS. Replace the Android version with PWA. However, PWA can only be executed when the device is connected to the Internet, so if Chromebook users use Office after September, it will inevitably become a bit more troublesome.