Co-authoring on Office files with sensitivity labels via Android and iOS is now possible

Nowadays, online collaboration among professionals. It is specifically true for projects involving the collaborative creation of documents, presentations, and other files. And if you are one of those who used to do it through different Office programs, you probably know how irritating it was not to be able to collaborate on files with Microsoft Purview Information Protection using Android or iOS systems. Thankfully, Microsoft has finally heard our complaint about that, as it is now rolling out support for the said function.

Collaboration has always been a big part of my job, especially when working on a particular topic with colleagues. Unfortunately, friction and disruptions are also a part of it, specifically when handling documents protected with Microsoft Purview Information Protection using Android and iOS devices. Such hindrance to my job, nonetheless, should not be an issue anymore co-editing documents in real-time since they are no longer available only to Office on Windows, macOS, and the web. This is some news for stay-at-home professionals like me who always have to use various devices when handling different tasks while moving around the house. 

According to Microsoft, the feature is now rolling out, allowing you to co-edit various documents with other users in real-time. It covers different Office mobile apps, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, regardless of whether they have sensitivity labels or not.

Nonetheless, it is worth noting that there are some requirements to access the new feature on mobile devices. Microsoft notes in its support documents that collaborating users with Android Office apps would have to update them to version 16.0.14931 or higher, while the iOS apps will require version 2.58.207 or higher.

“Ensure that the ‘Co-authoring for files with sensitivity labels’ setting is enabled for your tenant in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal(opens in new tab) (Global admin rights required),” adds Microsoft in its support documents. “If you have already enabled this setting, the feature will start working automatically for the above versions of Office apps.”