Microsoft has been pushing its cloud offerings for Office hard recently. The latest update sees the Office iOS apps getting more integration with third-party clients.
Cloud storage providers – including iCloud and Box – will now show up in the Office file picker. That means users can now open and edit files stored there rather than having to download them first.
Microsoft recently added Dropbox integration to its Office mobile and Web apps. Adding more cloud providers could give it an edge over Google Docs, which is limited to files stored on Google Drive. The company says support for more third party clients is coming soon to the Office apps for Windows 10 and Android.
The Office team has also announced a new Cloud Storage Partner Program, which will allow third party cloud services to integrate Office Online into their apps. That will allow users to, for example, open a Word doc in the Office Online UI within another app.
The first partners include Box, Citrix and Saleforce, and the company is hoping to get other services to sign up soon as well. Although Office Online doesn’t have the traction of Google Docs, integrating the product right into third-party services is an easy way for Microsoft to ensure more people commit to its platform.
➤ New cloud storage integration for Office [Office Blogs]
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