Microsoft Delivers Android Support for Azure Rights Management

Already available for Windows, Windows Mobile, and iOS Office users, Microsoft today is announcing general availability for full Azure Rights Management support for Android.

According to the blog post announcement dated July 29, 2016:

Information rights management (IRM) is now supported everywhere in Office Mobile as we are pleased to announce that we are extending Azure Rights Management to the Word, Excel and PowerPoint mobile apps for Android. You are now able to open, read and review rights-protected emails and Office documents on any device—whether it runs Windows, Mac, iOS or Android.

In a separate post on the Enterprise Mobility and Security Blog, Dan Plastina, the lead for the Info Protection team at Microsoft has announced general availability of the feature.

These types of enhancements show Microsoft is still completely dedicated to fulfilling its Mobile First/Cloud First world strategy. When the phrase was first used during Satya Nadella’s first months at Microsoft, many believed that Microsoft had a real mobile strategy for its own devices and for Windows. But, as we’ve come to understand now, that’s not the case. Instead, Microsoft is delivering excellence of experience across all mobile platforms – and in many cases its platforms like iOS and Android that benefit the most with software and features that just work better than on Microsoft’s own platform.

Other features that Microsoft indicates could be on the way shortly are:

·       Document tracking and revocation with Azure Rights Management Premium

·       Single sign-on and multiple accounts in Office 2016 for Mac

·       Improved user experience in Office 2016 for Windows

·       Ability to open legacy file formats