Microsoft’s Office for Android will now support cloud storage options other than Onedrive. This means that now you can use a third party cloud storage solution for storing your MS Office documents.
Previously you could always use any cloud storage option on the desktop version of Microsoft Office. The option had not been available on smartphones especially on Android. These options have been available on iOS for quite a while but they have only recently made their way to Android.
Now Microsoft Office for Android will support Dropbox, Box, Egnyte and Tencent. More options will be available soon which include Citrix ShareFile, Edmodo, and Learnium.
How to Add Different Cloud Storage Options
You can add the new cloud storage options by first updating the app.
Then you will need to go to the “Open” menu within the app and tap “Add a Place”. You will be redirected to an embedded browser and given the options to choose from:
After you choose your preferred option it will show up in the Open menu alongside local storage and Onedrive.
You can open, save and delete files from there but you cannot manage folders for now.
Google Drive May Not Be Coming
Microsoft says that more options will be coming to the Cloud Storage Partner Program. However, at this point in time, it is difficult to confirm if Google Drive will be offered as an alternative option for cloud storage.
This is because the Office apps directly compete with Google’s Sheets and Docs on Android which obviously use Google Drive as the default option.
The ice could thaw between the two competitors with time as evident from Google joining the .Net foundation. Only time will tell if Google Drive support is incorporated in Microsoft Office for mobile platforms.
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