Office for Mac finally has real-time collaboration in 16.9.0 update

Microsoft has released a major update for Office for Mac. Update 16.9.0 finally brings long-anticipated real-time collaboration features and automatic cloud saving. Notably, the Mac version of this software is now built from the same codebase as the Windows version, which means that Office shares a codebase across all platforms for the first time in 20 years.

The Mac version of Office has often lagged behind Windows in features (some periods have been better than others) but this change could lay the groundwork for better parity moving forward. A shared codebase doesn't necessarily mean everything will be the same, but it does mean that it will be simpler to support all platforms (Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android) on Microsoft's end.