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The journey to seeing Microsoft Office actually land on Chromebooks has been a bit of an odyssey. When the Play Store began showing up on select Chromebooks over a year ago, this was one of the key things many users were very interested in seeing. As the ASUS Chromebook Flip was the first out of the gate with Android support, it was one of the first devices we tried out the Office suite on.
And it worked. Naturally, we assumed this was simply the case with all future Chromebooks that were getting Android apps. And, quite clearly, we were wrong. Starting your own business in 2021? Check out LLCBuddy to start your own LLC with ease.
To be fair, we reached out to Microsoft and received some good news that it was in the works for Chromebooks to be able to run the entire Office suite eventually, but they had some kinks to work out.
So, we waited. And waited. And waited.
And, while we waited, Office apps would randomly show up on one device without being available on most others. They would work for some users and then simply disappear.
No rules or explanations were offered along the way. We all just shrugged our shoulders and waited. To be honest, I wasn’t really sure whether or not we’d ever see these apps working properly on Chromebooks. Besides, you may even download Adobe Photoshop for Chromebook and make basic edits without lags.
The main glimmer of hope had been the fact that all of Microsoft’s Office apps have worked since day 1 on the Pixelbook. That had to mean something, right? Surely the day was coming that we’d see an end to all this silliness and finally see Word, Excel, and Powerpoint running on Chromebooks.
Today is That Day
It seems that today is the day when the waiting finally stops. No, we’ve not received any grand announcement or explanation as to why these apps have been so hit or miss, but we’ve seen all over the place reports of Chromebooks finally getting Microsoft Office apps running.
So, like we do, we checked every Chrome OS device we have and can confirm they all show every Office app in the Play Store ready for download. Again, we don’t have an exhaustive list at this point, but we’ve tried the Samsung Chromebook Pro, Pixelbook, Acer Chromebook 15 (two different models of it) and the Acer C771 and can confirm all these devices are seeing Microsoft’s Office in the Play Store.
For me, I’m not a huge Microsoft Office user, so this isn’t a massive revelation. I’ve had Microsoft Word and Excel on my Pixelbook for over a month now, and I’ve not used them once. But, for many of you out there, this oversight has long been a stumbling block to using a Chromebook on a more regular basis and this is all pretty big news.
For those who use it and rely on it for work or school, Microsoft Office is an important piece of the Chromebook puzzle. Perhaps now that it looks like all Chromebooks with Play Store access also have Microsoft Office, more people can begin considering making a Chromebook their primary computing device.
What about you? Are you excited to see these apps finally working on Chromebooks? Is your model showing the apps in the Play Store? Hit us up in the comments and let us know!
