While Chromebooks are often thought of as just for visiting websites, the platform does have apps that are designed to work offline, even though they may be based on web technologies.

Microsoft offers a full suite of Office apps for ChromeOS, but WindowsUnited reports that recently the company has been directing their users to Office.com rather than launching the off-line apps.

The message reads:

Go to Office.com
This version of the Office app is no longer supported. For the best and most recent experience with this device, go to Office.com

While this would usually mean accessing nearly identical apps, unfortunately, you need an Office 365 subscription to use Office.com, unlike the Office apps on Chrome, which one can usually use for free.

This means Microsoft is effectively forcing Chromebook users to purchase Microsoft’s Office subscription.

At present, it is not known how many users this affects. Have any of our readers run into this issue? Let us know below.