Microsoft Office for iPhone, Android now available for free

Microsoft has made the iPhone and Android versions of its Office Mobile app available for free, dropping the Office 365 subscription that had previously been required.

Users will now be able to create and edit Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations, from their mobile phones at no extra cost.

Read: Office for iPad unveiled, apps will be free but subscription needed for editing

The home page of the iOS and Android app includes the ability to open any document found in your OneDrive. A "Recent" section will display what you've been working on, and an "Open" tab to get back to everything you've ever created in the cloud. Additionally, you'll find a "New" tab, where you can create documents from scratch.

The move to make Office for iPhone and Android free is presumably to combat Apple and Google's offerings. Apple makes Pages, Keynote, and Numbers software available to new iPhone users for free, and Google makes Google Docs within Google Drive available across all platforms.

The price slash comes after Microsoft announced the long-awaited Office for iPad application on Thursday. However, it does cost money under the Office 365 program, which essentially allows customers to rent Office for a yearly $99.99/£79.99 price. 

The Office Mobile app is available on the iTunes App Store and Google Play for download.