In a bid to make co-authoring documents and projects a little easier, Microsoft has recently revealed that they are introducing Skype chat to their Office web apps. The Office Online real-time chat feature will work with Word and Powerpoint only at the moment, Excel is unfortunately excluded, though it is reasonable to expect that this may change at a later date.
This latest update is the latest in a series of improvements to the online offering provided by Microsoft as they compete with the likes of Google in order to offer the most competitive cloud services to the consumer and enterprise markets.
As the chat function uses Skype, it will continue to be functional with other versions of Skype, including mobile apps, offering greater mobility to users. In conjunction with simultaneous real-time editing, this update promises to be a highly useful addition to the Office Online suite.
The update is expected to roll out to all users in coming weeks.
