Google Docs, Slides and Sheets for Android receive Office files support

The Android versions of Google Docs, Slides and Sheets receive support for editing Microsoft Office files directly, such as .docx and .pptx. Currently, users need to convert such files to another file format first.

Officeediting will be available to “all G Suite users and people with a personal Google account”, according to Google. The company does state that it may take ‘longer than 15 days’ for all users to have access to the function. In 2019, Google already added the same functionality to the web versions of the apps.

Users can open and edit Microsoft Office files in Google Docs, Slides and Sheets using the feature. Collaborative editing of these files is also supported. Previously, users could already edit Office documents in Google’s mobile apps, but before that, users first had to convert the document to a file format that is compatible with Google Docs, Sheets or Slides.

With the addition of this new functionality, Google is discontinuing the development of QuickOffice. This app already supported Microsoft Office files, but had limited functionality compared to Docs, Sheets and Slides. Also, QuickOffice users could only collaborate on documents to a limited extent, Google reports.