When you’re the world’s largest software maker and a distant third-place in smartphones and tablets, you have to make some sacrifices and evaluate your goals. For the longest time it seemed Microsoft hoped to win at mobile by copying what made Windows successful. Its Windows Phone operating system had exclusive features you couldn’t get anywhere else. Contained in it were free copies of Microsoft Office for Mobile, an upstart music subscription service and access to one of the best cloud storage services available anywhere.
Today, all of those things are available from Microsoft on Google’s Android platform too. Exactly how helpful that is for Windows Phone remains unclear, but it is clear that Microsoft has set out to snatch users for its services no matter where they are or what software theyre running. It’s a good move, because it means Microsoft’s best services are available for anyone and everyone to try. Here are 5 Microsoft apps Android users need to try now.
OneDrive
It’s no secret that Microsoft itself is in the midst of a culture change. For years, the company drifted, trying to use the same tired playbook to dominate new markets. OneDrive [1] is a symbol of how much the company has changed. Microsoft’s efforts in cloud storage started with Windows Live Sync and SkyDrive. Both of those apps were only available on Microsoft’s platforms and only offered users something small in terms of back up and syncing.
OneDrive is a behemoth. The services is available on everything from Android phones to Android tablets. It’s built into Microsoft Office and available in Windows 8 and Windows 10. The idea is simple, everything stashed in the OneDrive folder gets uploaded automatically to Microsoft’s servers. There it’s available on any device as long as there’s an internet connection. Microsoft gives users 15GB of free storage. OneDrive for Android lets users sync the pictures they upload to Microsoft’s servers in the background, acting as near instant back up if something happens to the device.
Microsoft Health
A few short months ago Microsoft shocked everyone by beating Apple to the wearables market. The Microsoft Band isn’t a wearable computer in the same way the Apple Watch is though. Instead, it’s custom-made for health and fitness tracking and it connects directly to an Android and iPhone app called Microsoft Health [2] .
Microsoft Health is free and lets users track their steps, and get guided fitness workouts. In addition to that, it enables some of the productivity features of the Microsoft Band for Android users. There’s also a Microsoft Health app for Windows Phone.
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is the world’s leading piece of productivity software. The Microsoft of old was built on just two pillars: Office and Windows. Now with its businesses interests diversified, Microsoft is changing how a new generation of devices get Office.
Office for Android tablets isn’t a single app. Instead, it’s a series of newly released apps all built to support Android tablets natively. There’s Word [3] , PowerPoint [4] , OneNote [5] and Excel [6] . Each is fully compatible with Android and connects directly to OneDrive for document storage and syncing. Alongside them is Office Mobile [7] . Office for Mobile contains Word, PowerPoint and Excel too, but each is optimized for smartphone screens. All of these apps is free, though signing up for Microsoft’s Office365 subscription service adds more OneDrive storage and features.
Xbox Music
You may have never heard of Microsoft’s Xbox Music subscription service before. Long before it was called Xbox Music, the service existed as Zune and its $9.99 a month streaming plan included 10 free song downloads a month. Today, the free music purchases are gone, but Xbox Music is getting better all the time.
Xbox Music on Android requires that users have an Xbox Music subscription. Users login and stream anything they want from the cloud collection they’ve built on other devices. They can also search for individual artists and songs directly in the Xbox Music Store to also stream. Last week the company made it so that users could add MP3s and other unprotected media files to their OneDrive storage. Xbox Music on Android treats these files as streamable and also makes them available anywhere Xbox Music Pass streaming is â€" like on the web or on the Xbox One itself.
[ Download Xbox Music from the Google Play Store [8] ]
Outlook
Outlook.com received a make over a few years ago that turned it from also-ran to best-in-class email and calendar application. Unfortunately, that was only true on the web. The Android and iPhone versions of Outlook remained pretty bad.
All of that changed earlier this year when Microsoft introduced a new Outlook for Android and iPhone client. Unlike the Outlook of old, this new Outlook is a complete replacement for built-in email apps. It connects to Outlook.com, Yahoo and Gmail. It also has Exchange support. The best feature of the app is its ability to decide on what emails you should care about now and which can just wait until later. It’s second best feature is the ability to swipe and schedule follow-ups and events for each email in your inbox.
[ Download Outlook From the Google Play Store [9] ]
All of a sudden, Microsoft has some of the best software available anywhere. No doubt you’ll find at least one of these apps enhances your Android experience.
Links
- ^ OneDrive (play.google.com)
- ^ icrosoft Health (play.google.com)
- ^ Word (play.google.com)
- ^ PowerPoint (play.google.com)
- ^ OneNote (play.google.com)
- ^ Excel (play.google.com)
- ^ Office Mobile (play.google.com)
- ^ Download Xbox Music from the Google Play Store (play.google.com)
- ^ Download Outlook From the Google Play Store (play.google.com)
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