Mac users will soon be able to do a lot more with Microsoft Office.
Office Chat for Mac is categorized as Communication Tools. Office Chat was developed to work on Mac OS X 10.7 or later. Some of Office Chat for Mac aliases include 'OfficeChat'. Office Chat is a secure messaging platform for the business world designed for fast workplace communication.
Add-ins, extensions that allow third-party apps to run inside Office, will soon roll out to Mac versions of the Office suite. Support for the plugins will be available on Mac in the coming weeks, Microsoft says.
See also: 8 Microsoft Word features that will take you to the next level
Microsoft also plans to make add-ins available for Office's Android apps, though it's not clear when that will be; Rob Howard, director of Office 365 ecosystem marketing, would only say that Android is 'on the roadmap.'
Since add-ins for Outlook and Outlook.com were first announced at last year's Build developer conference, developers have created more than 100 extensions (there are more than 1,000 for the entire Office suite). These include productivity apps like Evernote as well as services like Uber and Yelp.
Starbucks is also creating an add-in that runs inside of Outlook. The tool, which was demoed onstage during Thursday's Build keynote, will allow users to send gift cards via email and schedule meetings at Starbucks locations. Once the appointment is scheduled, the add-in deep links back to Starbucks' app to make it easier order coffee ahead of time.
Coming soon: Sending and receiving Starbucks gift cards in Outlook #Build2016pic.twitter.com/CzyMPFz162
— Karissa Bell (@karissabe) March 31, 2016
Though Microsoft hasn't hyped add-ins as much as other areas of Office, it's hoping Mac support and other improvements — like data sharing between Office and its third-party services — will help developers start to think of Office as more of a platform rather than a set of static apps.
'We've kind of always had this notion of Office as a platform,' Howard said. 'And that's evolved alongside the apps and services to better address this kind of new breed of cloud and mobile developer.'
Microsoft is also introducing two new software development kits (SDKs) for Skype: a Skype Web SDK and a Skype for Business App SDK. These software tools will allow developers to create voice and video chat experiences for their services using Skype's framework. One early partner Microsoft demoed was MDLIVE, a tele-health company that enables doctors and patients to connect remotely over video.
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