Quickoffice alternatives as Google pulls the plug

As it turns out, Google's stopping of updates to Quickoffice for the future for iOS and Android isn't the worst news in the world. When we first heard that Quickoffice would be chopped out of Google's suite of apps for devices on the regular, it seemed like a time for change. Instead, Google has already snuck the abilities of the Quickoffice collection in to another app you should already have downloaded: Drive.

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Inside Drive you're able to do essentially everything you'd have been doing in Quickoffice. Future updates of Drive will almost certainly bring whatever's missing, while by the looks of the future Drive app we've seen leaked over the past week, these changes will be coming sooner than later.

For iOS there's always the iWork suite, which is entirely free, or you can work with Google Drive there as well. Chrome also has the next generation of Office-friendly editing apps ready to roll, and Google is bringing the heat for the next generation as well.

During the main Google I/O 2014 presentation last week, Senior VP Sundar Pichai spoke specifically about Office. "One of the common use cases we run into in companies ... is that they run into Office files."

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Pichai went on, "It's a very common experience for all of us. And we want to make sure as we bring Android for work, Office work seamlessly ... Today we are announcing native [Microsoft] Office editing built within the Google Docs suite of editors."

Windows pro Paul Thurrott suggests that because Google has a whole lot to gain from taking on the Microsoft Office universe, they'll certainly continue to do so. What doesn't exist in Drive in Android will exist soon. You'll be able to work with Office documents on your Android device in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides apps as well through the future.

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