14 DAY TRIAL // A year after Google acquired Quickoffice, the company is pushing forward with its Microsoft Office alternative (that isn't called Drive/Docs) and making it more appealing than ever by offering the Quickoffice app for both Android and iOS free.
Google was already providing some Quickoffice functionality, including editing documents and spreadsheets, for free to Chrome OS users. But it has now made all the apps free, all you need to do is log in with your Google account.
"Quickoffice also integrates seamlessly with Google Drive storage so you can safely access your files from anywhere. And while the easiest thing to do is simply convert your old files to Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, Quickoffice gives you another way to work with people who haven’t gone Google yet," Google explains.
Quickoffice is a bit of an odd thing at Google, a rare admission that it can't do everything in-house perhaps. Google Drive has always had the ability to view Office files or convert them to native Drive files. But the conversion has never been great and many details were lost in the process.
By comparison, Quickoffice offers great support for Office files, so Google bought the company behind it and started integrating the functionality into its products. But, even as the new free Quickoffice is tied into Drive, it's still a separate app requiring a separate download.
But to drive the point home, that Quickoffice is a part of Drive. Google is offering 10 GB of free Drive storage for two years to anyone who installs the Quickoffice app by September 26. The bonus storage space will be enabled in the next few weeks after you install the app.
Apart from being free, the updated app also comes with a new Google Drive inspired icon, support for ZIP folders, and Excel and PowerPoint charts.