You can now co-author protected Office Documents both on iOS and Android. With this in place, users can now make changes on protected Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents more easily than before. It is also worth noting that this feature was already available on Windows and Mac, however.
Microsoft has indicated that this feature is designed to help enhance the productivity of remote workers. How does this feature work? Office mobile apps will grant access to a user whenever they want to make changes to a protected file, then encrypt it when done. Although the IT admin should first enable the Co-authoring for files with sensitivity labels option via the Microsoft Purview compliance portal.
According to Paras Kapadia, the principal product manager for Microsoft 365 apps, “With Microsoft Purview Information Protection, we are building a unified set of capabilities for data classification, labeling, and protection not only in Office Apps, but also in other popular productivity services where the information resides (e.g., SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Microsoft Teams), as well as endpoint devices.”
To access this feature, users will need to install the latest Office app update (or Word/Excel/PowerPoint) on Android (version 16.0.14931 or higher) or iOS (version 2.58.207 or higher).
