Image via Microsoft.

If you use an online app like Google Docs then you’ve long been accustomed to having multiple people collaborate on the same document or spreadsheet at once. Microsoft Excel is finally taking a step into this brave new world of simultaneous editing and adding the ability to co-author spreadsheets.




Today, Microsoft enabled co-authoring in Excel on desktop for Office Insiders. (That means the feature is still being tested among users who have joined the beta program, which you can join here.) As you’d expect, you’ll see a little avatar when someone else has the document open, as well as the current location of their cursor when they are digging around the document and editing cells in the spreadsheet.

No word on when it will be available outside of the beta, but it’s already available if you’re using Excel Online and on Android. It’s also in the iOS app but only for Office Insiders for now. I personally can’t wait to collaborate on spreadsheets with all my Excel pals.