Tag: workplace

  • Android telephones simply obtained a significant comfort improve for Workplace information

    What that you must know

    • Now you can open shared Phrase, Excel, and PowerPoint information on Android, with no Microsoft account wanted.
    • You’ll be able to faucet a hyperlink, and the doc opens immediately in view-only mode.
    • This works on Android should you’re working Workplace apps model 16.0.18827.20066 or later.

    Microsoft’s nameless file sharing is now stay on Android, permitting you to open Phrase, Excel, and PowerPoint information with out logging right into a Microsoft account.

    Again within the day, you wanted to sign up with a Microsoft account simply to open shared Workplace docs. Earlier this yr, Microsoft made this transformation for iPhone customers, and now Android customers are lastly having fun with the identical advantages. Microsoft is rolling out the no-sign-in-needed function to Android phones too (by way of Android Authority).

    With a view to get into shared content material, simply faucet the hyperlink and also you’re in. It’s a stable repair for what was once an actual headache for Android customers.

    Now when an Android person receives a Phrase doc, PowerPoint deck, or Excel sheet, they’ll leap proper in with no crimson tape to chop by way of first.

    View-only by default

    You’ll nonetheless see a sign-in immediate at first, however you possibly can simply skip it. The file will open in view-only mode. If you wish to edit or drop feedback, you’ll nonetheless have to log right into a Microsoft account for that.

    (Picture credit score: Microsoft)

    This function kicks in when the hyperlink comes from somebody utilizing a Microsoft account. The sender simply opens the file in Phrase, Excel, or PowerPoint, faucets the share icon, then both sorts in an e-mail or copies the hyperlink.

    Nameless file sharing is now stay on Android for Phrase, Excel, and PowerPoint working model 16.0.18827.20066 or newer. There is a catch, although: whether or not you are utilizing Workplace apps on Android, iPhone, or iPad, this function remains to be coated by ’s Private Info Safety Regulation.

    In a manner, Microsoft is lastly catching as much as one thing Google Drive has been doing for ages. Nevertheless, contemplating how deeply rooted Workplace apps are in work and college life, including nameless file sharing on Android feels much less like a brand new function, and extra like fixing one thing that ought to’ve been there all alongside.

  • Context will get $11M to construct an AI-powered workplace suite

    Context, a startup constructing an AI-powered workplace suite, on Wednesday introduced that it raised $11 million in a seed spherical led by Lux Capital with participation from Qualcomm Ventures and Common Catalyst. The spherical, which brings the company’s total raised to round $15.75 million, values Context at $70 million.

    Founder Joseph Semrai, a Thiel Fellow, began engaged on Context in 2024 after he realized that present digital workplace suites should not well-suited to make the most of AI fashions.

    “[W]e have a bunch of disparate functions that aren’t essentially constructed conserving the facility of [AI models] in thoughts,” Semrai advised TechCrunch in a telephone interview. “We need to make the most of the truth that [models] can perceive giant context home windows and use a number of functions on the identical time to get the very best consequence.”

    Over the previous few years, many startups in the productivity and browsing space have made consumer interface modifications to undertake a chat-forward expertise, largely because of the rise of AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT. Semrai thinks that Context, which is equally chat-focused, could be a highly effective device for staff utilizing an workplace suite, much like how Cursor has turn out to be a helpful software for programmers.

    blank
    Context founder Joseph SemraiPicture Credit:Context

    Workplace suite makers like Google and Microsoft have infused AI into their functions. Canva, which has been within the artistic area traditionally, can also be designing merchandise that go well with all types of workplace work with AI at the center. Notion, in the meantime, is constructing an enterprise workplace with an AI search and research mode.

    Many of those merchandise provide connectors to third-party functions. However Semrai stated that whereas connecting to sources and retrieving knowledge is changing into commoditized, new-age instruments don’t at all times ship capabilities that assist with evaluation. That, he stated, is the place Context is available in — it’s designed to make it simpler for customers to purpose over the info they fetch from varied sources and make selections based mostly on that.

    Context has a easy interface with a chat field within the middle. You’ll be able to ask the AI device to carry out analysis derived out of your paperwork, integrations, and net information. You’ll be able to then ask it to transform all this to a doc, spreadsheet, or presentation, whereas persevering with to work together with it to generate totally different artifacts.

    Context additionally affords a Python interpreter to allow you to run code.

    The purpose isn’t essentially changing a totally featured workplace suite like Microsoft 365. Reasonably, Context goes after a market not well-served by the present crop of instruments, in line with Semrai. For instance, in contrast to many AI-powered knowledge evaluation merchandise, Context will quickly be capable of work offline, enabling easy evaluation and doc drafting based mostly on current knowledge and paperwork through Context’s desktop shopper.

    Customers can check out Context totally free with 50 credit, one workspace, and 10 workforce members. Alternatively, they’ll pay $20 per 30 days to get 2,000 credit with no limits on workspaces and workforce members.