Microsoft’s All-In-One Office Mobile App to Retire Two File-Sharing Capabilities

Microsoft has announced its plans to deprecate some file-sharing capabilities in its Office mobile apps. The company detailed in a blog post yesterday that the Nearby Share and Transfer Files features will stop working on December 31, 2022.

The Nearby Share feature provides a streamlined and simple process to easily share files between two Android devices. It uses a Bluetooth connection to create a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi network between the devices. However, the feature only works when both users are in close proximity.

“We made this decision as we continue to reassess the value our users derive from the Office app, and we aim to offer experiences that are consistent, reliable and allow our users to be productive across their devices. It is in this pursuit of streamlining our solutions that we have decided to sunset this feature,” the company explained in a blog post yesterday.

Microsoft’s Office mobile app to retire File Transfer in favor of OneDrive

The all-in-one Office mobile app is also dropping support for the File Transfer feature at the end of this year. This capability allows people to use a QR code to send files from their mobile devices to a computer, or vice-versa. “Rest assured that files that have been sent and received using the Transfer Files feature will remain in the Office app and will be unaffected by this change,” Microsoft added.

Microsoft encourages users to switch to OneDrive for sharing content between mobile devices and their computer systems. The file-sharing functionality is already integrated into the Office app and provides a seamless experience on Android and iOS devices.

Last month, Microsoft announced that it’s rebranding the Office apps to Microsoft 365. The company will first begin rolling out this name change to Office.com later this month. Moreover, the Office mobile app on Windows, Android, and iOS will also be rebranded in January 2023.