The Microsoft 365 app is designed to bridge your most used collaboration tasks, making it easy to complete them from one platform. In this article, I will discuss this app in more detail, why I recommend looking into using it on your mobile device, and my overall views and impressions.
What is the Microsoft 365 App on mobile?
The Microsoft 365 app lets you access your files stored on OneDrive, capture your documents, use Microsoft’s AI (Copilot) and much more. Essentially, Microsoft created an application where you can do at least four different things without having to use four different separate applications.
I have based this review on the Samsung One UI/Android mobile operating system. I expect the core functionality to carry over to other devices (Apple, I’m looking at you), but your experience may vary slightly.
What can you do in Microsoft 365?
Microsoft 365 is a bit of a Swiss army knife of software – it lets you do a ton of different things, but doesn’t specialize in any of them.
Access OneDrive
The app allows you to view files in your OneDrive. The app organizes your files into two tabs: For You and My Files. The To You section shows files that you have recently accessed, while My Files shows all the files and folders in your OneDrive cloud. There is even an option to view the files and folders on your mobile device.
Some additional options include the ability to search through your files and folders via the search box at the top, as well as file and folder management. Some of the highlights available for file management include sharing, removing from list, deleting and more – the menu options change depending on the selected file type.
Record scans, video recordings and more
The Capture section allows you to perform a number of actions, including: scanning a document, recording a video, taking a photo to interact with Copilot, and dictating a voice memo. Like the OneDrive section, this section is divided into two tabs: New Recording and My Recordings. You also have the option to search through your recordings using Search.
Use Copilot AI
Copilot is Microsoft’s AI tool that allows you to do everything from composing text or images, searching the web for information or analyzing and breaking down an image – it’s Microsoft’s answer to the new wave of artificial intelligence. With Copilot, if you can imagine it, you can most likely ask it to give you output. It’s important to note that it’s very much in beta, and AI, while generally useful, is not without its idiosyncrasies. I would strongly recommend double-checking any output from Copilot (and AI in general) that you plan to release into the wild.
Create files and documents
The Create section allows you to create a variety of new Office documents: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, and even the new Designer option.
Access Microsoft and other apps
The Apps section is where third parties of other Microsoft apps can be accessed. This is essentially a repository where either available or installed apps on your device are displayed. This section is divided into two sections: Recommended for you (which may or may not be Microsoft apps) and More from Microsoft, which is mostly Microsoft’s Office apps.
What I love about this app
There is certainly more to like about Microsoft 365 than not to like. That’s it especially handy if you’ve already embraced Microsoft’s software ecosystem.
- This app allows me to interact with and manage my files and folders, create new documents, and share files and folders with others from one app.
- I am able to capture important things with my camera by scanning and then do with it as I need, including document conversion.
- Being able to use Copilot integrated with all the other functionality adds an even higher level of ease of use.
- Creating other types of documents (including Designer and PDF files) removes extra steps, allowing me to create them in one place.
What could be better with Microsoft 365?
It would be great if Microsoft could integrate more key collaboration tools like Outlook and Teams into the app. Similarly, it would be great if Microsoft would allow users to choose which apps they would like as a tab at the bottom. It would make it faster to switch between jobs while working on something.
When it comes to an all-in-one solution, Microsoft is really the only mainstream company that offers something like the Microsoft 365 app. Google doesn’t have a similar option for Workspace, and neither does Apple. Samsung offers the Samsung Store app, but it only allows users to view and launch the apps already installed on their device.
If, like me, you’re a professional or power user living in the Microsoft environment and want a fast, efficient, and streamlined way to get things done, I highly recommend installing the Microsoft 365 app on your Android or iOS device and give this excellent app a try.