Build 2016: Office apps for Hololens, Microsoft Graph and more

On the second day of its Build 2016 developers conference, Microsoft has announced new Office-specific opportunities for developers. These include smarter apps with Microsoft Graph and Office 365, native solutions in Office, engaging users through conversations and, Inking and Office on HoloLens.

Last year, Microsoft Graph was announced to allow developers to add data and intelligence from Microsoft services into their own apps. Now, extending it further, the new announcement allows developers to make their apps even smarter with data and insights from Office 365.

“New APIs return “relevant documents” and suggestions for meeting times based on real-time calendar availability. And new web and device SDKs make it easier than ever to access the Microsoft Graph and surface Office 365 data in business solutions using simple drop-in integrations like the OneDrive file picker,” Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president for the Office team writes in a blogpost.

Then the software giant has announced the extension of add-ins to Office for Mac that will be available later this spring, along with ‘centralised deployment and programmatic creation of solution-specific ribbons and buttons’. For instance, Starbucks is developing an Outlook add-in allowing people to send Starbucks e-gifts within Outlook and also schedule meetings at nearby Starbucks locations instead of opting for a conference room. In future, Starbucks also plans mobile orders right within the Office, says the blogpost.

Simplified and effective conversations has clearly been the focuss at Build 2016. Nadella spoke about intelligent, contextual conversations and Office plans to take it ahead with new Skype Web SDK, Skype for Business App SDK and Office 365 Groups connectors.

“The new Skype Web SDK and Skype for Business App SDK allow companies like MDLIVE to facilitate doctor/patient consultations through a mobile app using voice and video powered by Skype for Business. Making these features available is an important step in our Skype Developer Platform roadmap to combine the power of cloud voice, meetings and messaging with new cloud APIs and SDKs that work across a range of web and device platforms to drive new scenarios and help developers and partners re-imagine how they engage and win customers,” Koenigsbauer writes. Developers will find more details here .

Availability of Office 365 Groups connectors has been announced. This will allow developers to push data from their own services into an Office 365 Groups conversation in Outlook. It plans to bring Office 365 Connectors to the Outlook inbox soon.

Yesterday, we saw how Inking will spruce up Office experience and now Microsoft has announced preview versions of the Office Universal apps in the Windows Store for download on HoloLens Development Edition. “In addition to making your HoloLens a productivity device and demonstrating what the device can do, the ease with which the Office team was able to develop these HoloLens experiences based on our Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote Universal Windows apps is an example of how developers can easily create incredible things for HoloLens leveraging their pre-existing code,” he writes.