Microsoft to snatch Visio app away from iOS users this summer
- Reference: 1678282214
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/03/08/microsoft_visio_ios/
- Source link:
As we [1]wrote , the enterprise software giant this week surprised Mac users by making its Outlook for Mac app free to use. Users can download the app from the Apple App Store and get to work on their email account – Outlook, iCloud, Google, whatever – without needing a Microsoft 365 subscription or license.
However, those using Microsoft's Visio tool for diagrams and vector graphics through the app on their iPhones and iPads only have a few more months before the app is no longer available.
[2]
On the same day that the Outlook for Mac news came out, Microsoft confirmed the Visio Viewer app will be removed from the Apple App Store on August 14 and users will eventually have to get one of two Visio subscriptions or through a new or existing Microsoft 365 subscription.
[3]
[4]
Once the app is removed from Apple's store, those with it installed on their devices will be able to continue using it, for a while at least.
"Starting August 14, 2023, existing installations of the app on iPhone and iPad devices will continue to work," Microsoft product manager Abhinav Chatterjee writes in a [5]blog post . "However, over time, the integration with services like OneDrive and SharePoint will break. Furthermore, users will not have the option to re-install the app on their iOS device if the app is uninstalled or they've switched devices."
[6]
This comes as Microsoft builds out the capabilities of Visio for the web, introduced more than six years ago as Visio Online, Chatterjee writes. Specifically, the company says it has since enhanced how users view and share files for Visio drawings housed in Microsoft's OneDrive file hosting service and its SharePoint online collaboration platform.
Microsoft wants to shut down the Visio Viewer app for iOS devices to give engineers more time to improve Visio for the web, Chatterjee writes.
The vendor is already giving administrators a heads-up through notifications in the Microsoft 365 Message center.
[7]Microsoft makes Outlook Mac native email app a freebie
[8]Windows Insider Dev Channel flies again as very flighty Canary Channel
[9]Now Microsoft injects Copilot AI into Dynamics 365
[10]EU 'poised' to OK Microsoft's Activision biz gobble
For those who received a message, "it means one or more people in your organization are using the Visio Viewer app for iOS," Chatterjee writes. "If you did not receive a notification in the Message center, then you don't need to take any action."
Visio offers users a range of templates and stencils for taking data, text, and tables and putting them into visual diagrams that include everything from organizational charts and workflows to floorplans and Venn, pyramid, and network diagrams.
[11]
Microsoft has owned the technology since buying Visio Corporation in 2000.
Microsoft is [12]laying out the different ways iOS users – and any user, really – can sign up for Visio, either through Microsoft 365 (the tool is available in all commercial plans) and Visio Plan 1 or Plan 2. It also outlines the types of diagrams each will support.
Users also can use Visio for the web without a license by signing into a Microsoft 365 account and uploading the Visio file to OneDrive, where it can be opened in the browser but only seen in a read-only view. In addition, Visio Viewer lets users open, view, and print Visio drawings but not create, edit, or save.
Visio for the web can be used not only with Edge but also Apple Safari 10+, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/07/microsoft_makes_outlook_mac_native/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZAi-NSqr-mopC3XBZDZjTQAAAIA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZAi-NSqr-mopC3XBZDZjTQAAAIA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZAi-NSqr-mopC3XBZDZjTQAAAIA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/microsoft-visio-viewer-app-for-ios-will-be-retired-from-the-app/ba-p/3757867
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZAi-NSqr-mopC3XBZDZjTQAAAIA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/07/microsoft_makes_outlook_mac_native/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/07/windows_insider_canary_channel/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/07/microsoft_dynamics365_copilot_ai/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/06/microsoft_activision_eu/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZAi-NSqr-mopC3XBZDZjTQAAAIA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/visio-for-the-web-faq-e6647040-2fca-42ec-9fa5-d16a4e39e0ee
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Use Omnigraffle.
Just grab [1]Omnigraffle from the Omni Group.
The Pro version can also read and write Visio so you get a better UI, and there is an iOS version (it even works on an iPhone, although I have no idea who would want that).
Been using it for years (basically from when Microsoft got its paws on Visio and destroyed its previous rather good usability). No need to immediately part with your money: the Mac version can run in trial mode for two weeks.
The Mac version comes in a pay monthly and pay once model, iOS sadly only with a subscription.
No, they're not paying me - it's just stuff that works. Bonus feature is that it is also able to make Visio diagrams look MUCH better, but best hide that or people on Visio may get jealous :).
[1] https://www.omnigroup.com/omnigraffle
Re: Use Omnigraffle.
Unfortunately you can't buy it. It's subscription.
Re: Use Omnigraffle.
See [1]this page , scroll down to "Traditional one-off payment". As I said, not possible for iOS, sadly, but the Mac version is definitely one-off.
I know it because that's the version I use :).
[1] https://store.omnigroup.com/omnigraffle`
Re: Use Omnigraffle.
Gives me a 404
This link works tho https://store.omnigroup.com/omnigraffle/
That's a shame. I quite liked Visio (before it became an online thing too infested with Orifice). Now I'll have to find something else. Any suggestions?
No, that's the main problem with Microsoft en Windows: as soon as something good appears, they buy it or steal the concept and then butcher the UI into oblivion. Visio worked exactly because it was simple, but MS pretty much destroyed its functionality when its "experts" got their hands on it and stuffed it with rubbish that only someone who doesn't actually use it for Real Work would deem important :(.
Choices
Inkscape
Perhaps MS needs some more engineers?
” Microsoft wants to shut down the Visio Viewer app for iOS devices to give engineers more time to improve Visio for the web”
Alternatively, we can expect an announcement from MS about a 6% cut in workforce…
My Visio 2003
still works fine.
Functionality creep.
” the integration with services like OneDrive and SharePoint will break”
Looking at what Abhinav Chatterjee has published, the added functionality more correctly sits in the Onedrive File Explorer and not in the viewer app, as it would be beneficial to all accesses to the Onedrive file store regardless of application being used.
Or is this just another example of MS breaking links with the past just to force 365 subscription take up…
Thanks, Microsoft, you've just made things easier for me. I have two Visio Pro licences, one on my main PC and the other on my laptop, but occasionally have to look at diagrams on my iPhone. My work is switching everyone to Macs, and I wondered how to keep Visio. Now I realise I neither want to nor need to if it's yet another product that I paid for that I now need to pay for again via a subscription.