An update to the Microsoft PowerPoint app for iPhone and iPad arrived in the App Store today, and aside from a single line mentioning “bug fixes and performance improvements,” the focus is entirely on newly added PowerPoint Remote for Apple Watch.
As the name implies, this allows users to control PowerPoint presentations entirely from their wrist. This includes starting the show and navigating between slides, but it also shows useful information like the time elapsed since the presentation began, the number of slides, and the number of the current slide.
While this is certainly the kind of use that the Apple Watch seems perfect for, there is one caveat: Currently, PowerPoint Remote for Apple Watch only works with the iOS versions of PowerPoint. Considering that the vast majority of PowerPoint presentations are done from a laptop, this isn’t nearly as useful as it could be.
Microsoft has already explored similar functionality in its Office Remote apps for Windows Phone and Android devices that allow users to control presentations on the PC, so it’s clear that the company isn’t totally against this type of thing. On the other hand, the glaring lack of an Office Remote app for iOS when the company has already brought its other apps to the platform leaves us wondering if perhaps we’ll have to wait until Office 2016 is official to see this functionality on the Mac.
In the meantime, frequent users of PowerPoint for iOS who also own an Apple Watch have good reason to be excited. We’re still hoping to see this functionality extended to Macs and PCs in the future.
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