Microsoft plans to finish help for its Android-based Office apps for Chrome OS customers. Beginning Sept. 18, Chromebooks that depend on the Android variations of Office, Outlook, OneNote, and OneDrive might want to migrate over to the online to entry information and folders.

About Chromebooks confirmed the upcoming change with Microsoft after a reader identified messaging in an Office app urging them to maneuver to the online. A Microsoft support web page additionally suggests customers entry Microsoft 365 by the out there internet apps. The help web page provides that the Android variations of Office, Outlook, OneNote, and OneDrive are usually not at the moment supported on a Chromebook.

Microsoft’s transfer to the online is seemingly an try to offer an “optimized experience” for Chrome OS customers.

“This transition brings Chrome OS/Chromebook customers access to additional and premium features,” a Microsoft spokesperson informed About Chromebooks.

The Office internet expertise is a Progressive Web App, or PWA, so it’s full-featured, to not point out it should scale higher on bigger screens (like on a 17-inch Acer Chromebook 317, as an illustration).

But whereas it sounds fairly cut-and-dry, once that transition occurs, it should turn into tougher to edit and supply cloud-based paperwork when the Chromebook is offline. That negates the entire level of Chrome OS, which is a cloud-based working system that lets you work on paperwork with out an web connection. But not if the PWAs for Microsoft Office doesn’t supply an offline mode.

On the flip facet, being pressured to make use of Microsoft’s web-based apps cuts out any clunky interactions you may need had utilizing the Android apps on Chrome OS. Android apps don’t all the time translate properly to the Chromebook’s huge display. But it does take away the power so as to add a “native” Microsoft app to Chrome OS, which Chromebook customers are inclined to choose.

The transfer comes as the firm is launching its revamped Windows 11 within the fall, which adopts a extra touch-friendly consumer interface. Considering Windows 11 can have native Android app compatibility (albeit by Amazon’s Appstore), it’s a little bit unusual that Microsoft is transferring away from these particular Android apps.

About Chromebooks jogged my memory there may be an Office Editing extension from Google that permits you to obtain Word, Excel, and PowerPoint information to edit with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. It lets you edit these information in Google Docs with out the web, and it stays dormant within the background till it senses an lively connection, when it then uploads your modifications. There are additionally open-source alternate options to opening and enhancing Office information, specifically the Linux model of LibreOffice, a comparatively straightforward set up on the Chromebook if you happen to’re not intimidated by Linux apps.

Of course, the simpler answer could be to not have to search out an alternate in any respect. Hopefully Microsoft addresses these considerations earlier than the official deadline.