The app will be part of the next OS feature update

Dec 21, 2018 10:01 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has announced a new Office app for Windows 10 that it supposed to simplify your work with the company’s productivity suite.

Simply called Office, this new app doesn’t allow you to work with documents, but its role is to serve as a central hub for all the tasks you’ve been running lately and the editing you’ve made with Office apps.

Basically, Office will display the latest documents that you opened on your system, but also connect with Office applications and offer quick access to the built-in tools.

For example, the Apps section lets you open Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or OneNote with just a click, while the rest of the screen is reserved to documents that you’ve been working on recently.

New Office icons

Microsoft says it has used the redesigned Office.com to create this app. Office uses the new icons that will be part of the modern experience with the productivity suite, and although they aren’t available just yet, they should go live sometime soon for insiders.

“The app is a great starting point for Office that helps you easily find all your files in one place or easily access any Office solution available to you. It knows to connect you to the Office rich clients if they are installed on your computer or it will send you to the web version of Office if they’re not,” Microsoft explains.

“IT will also appreciate the ability to customize the app by integrating other line of business applications that use Azure Active Directory into the experience and apply corporate branding to the app.”

The Office app for Windows 10 is available right now for insiders in the Fast ring who install Windows 10 preview build 18305 and it will be included in the final version of the 19H1 update rolling out in the spring for production devices.