Google To Discontinue Quickoffice In Favor Of New Mobile Productivity Apps
June 29, 2014
Google is set to discontinue Quickoffice in favor of its new Google Drive-integrated mobile productivity suite.
Quickoffice was acquired by Google in June 2012 and was relaunched by the Intenet giant exclusively for Google Apps for Business users the following December. In September last year, it was reopened for free, for everyone, and updated with improved integration with Google Drive.
Last April, Google introduced Google Docs and Google Sheets for creating and editing documents and spreadsheets, respectively, on iOS devices. And earlier this week, it announced that Google Slides for iOS will be available soon for creating and editing presentations.
It appears, though, that the emergence of this trio of office productivity apps comes at the cost of Quickoffice. As noted by the unofficial Google Operating System blog, Quickoffice will soon be discontinued by Google.
Indeed, a few days ago, Google announced on the official Google Apps blog that since Quickoffice has been integrated into the Google Docs, Sheets and Slides apps, the removal of the Quickoffice app is in order:
With the integration of Quickoffice into the Google Docs, Sheets and Slides apps, the Quickoffice app will be unpublished from Google Play and the App Store in the coming weeks. Existing users with the app can continue to use it, but no features will be added and new users will not be able to install the app.No definite date has been announced by Google for the removal of Quickoffice. Most probably, the app will be pulled from the App Store as soon as Google Slides for iOS arrives, thereby rounding out the Google Drive app trio. At the moment, Quickoffice remains available for download on the App Store. See also: Google Shuts Down Customer Feedback Platform TalkBin Due To Dwindling Usage.