Microsoft Office Delve: Updates, Mobile App

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It's a busy time for Microsoft, which is releasing a number of updates to its Office software throughout this week. Shortly after learning about the launch of Skype for Business, the tech community received news of updates to Office 365 and Office Delve.

Microsoft is announcing improvements to Office 365 that leverage Delve to help users learn more about specific people and share more information about themselves. It's also introducing Delve mobile apps for iPhone and Android so that customers can access these new features on the go.

The first update addresses people-based search and discovery. Office Delve users can already search for content based on specific keywords, but with this update they can also learn more about specific people and the trending topics relevant to them.

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This is made possible through improvements to the Office 365 profile experience, which has been cleaned up and tailored to have a more action-oriented design, according to a blog post on the news. Profile pages are responsive across small-screened smartphones and larger displays.

Each Office 365 profile contains core data like activity, "about me," contact information, and organizational structure, which has been redesigned for more prominent display and easier navigation. Profiles can be found through a Delve people search, selecting "About me" or by clicking a person's name in OneDrive for Business or Outlook Web App.

Users will also see a new profile feature called Blog, which is intended to facilitate modern self-expression for business users. Those who want to share an opinion or update can click "start writing" in their personal Blog section and enter content.

This internal blogging tool enables users to post pages directly to Yammer, edit and view pages via mobile, and auto-save while writing. It's integrated across Office 365, so users can directly embed photos from their desktop, documents from OneDrive for Business, or videos from Office 365 Video into their blog posts.

Blog is the first feature within Office 365 to leverage the authoring canvas, a new platform for authoring pages across Office 365. While the canvas is currently used to help create blog posts, Microsoft writes that it will eventually be used to develop Office 365 pages like those within Office 365 Groups, individual user profiles, and NextGen portals in the future.

A larger pool of users will have access to these upgrades now that Delve will be available on iOS and Android smartphones. It's also available for Android Wear. The apps will facilitate constant access to Delve information and provide notifications when changes are made to active files.

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