Q: What is the difference between Microsoft 365 desktop, mobile and web apps?

A:Depending on your Microsoft 365 plan depends on which applications you have access to and how those applications can be used.

All Microsoft 365 Office plans provide access to the mobile and web applications include in the plan.

Only some Microsoft 365 Office plans include the downloadable desktop applications.

You can also purchase the desktop applications separately.

Desktop applications

• With the desktop applications you are able to work on files stored locally and do not need internet access
• If you have access to the online applications you can use the desktop applications to:
  • Save files to the teams storage areas, SharePoint, OneDrive etc. "the cloud" directly from Word, Excel and the other apps. 
  • Files saved to "the cloud" can be collaborated on with multiple people viewing and editing a document at the same time.

Mobile apps  

• These are simpler versions of the desktop tools. 
• They natively work with "the cloud" but you can sometimes also store files locally. 

Web apps 

• These are very close to full featured but you must have an internet connection to use them. 
• Generally the desktop and mobile apps are better to use but the web apps can be used when you are on someone else's computer or device that has internet access.
• Use the web apps if you like to do everything in the browser. 
• These web apps can only work on files in "the cloud".  Local files need to be uploaded to the cloud to be used.