Microsoft Brings Anonymous Office Document Sharing to iPhone and iPad

Microsoft has extended free, anonymous sharing of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents from the web to the iPhone and iPad.

“When sharing files with others, recipients have been able to open them in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for the web if they don’t have a Microsoft account,” Microsoft’s Juan Karmy explains. “Now, collaborators you’ve shared files with are able to open them on their iPhone and iPad devices, even if they don’t have a Microsoft account.”

This capability is for viewing documents only: If the recipient would like to edit those files or leave comments, they will need to sign in with a Microsoft account. And to be clear, though the person sharing a document doesn’t need a Microsoft 365 subscription, they do need a Microsoft account, as the shared file will be stored in OneDrive.

To share an Office document with someone this way, open the document in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. Then, select Share > Link settings, make sure that “Anyone with the link can edit” or “Anyone with the link can view” is selected, and click “Apply.” Then, enter the email address of the person you are sharing with and click “Send.” (Or, click the “Copy” button to copy the address of the shared document to the Clipboard.)

There’s no word on Android support, sorry.