Nextcloud adds desktop app for Euro-Office productivity suite

Nextcloud has developed a desktop app for its Euro-Office-based productivity applications, filling a gap in the software suite that it pitches as a sovereign alternative to Microsoft Office.

Nextcloud, one of the backers of the Euro-Office initiative, integrated the software into its Nextcloud Office suite in June. Until now, it’s been accessible via a web browser or mobile app.

The new desktop client lets users edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations locally, and sync files online for collaborative editing. It will be available for Linux, macOS, and Windows in the coming weeks.

“For organizations and individuals who prefer a traditional desktop experience, this closes one of the last gaps between Euro-Office and Microsoft Office, without handing control of their data to a non-European vendor,” Nextcloud said in a press release.

Rather than a standalone application suite, Euro-Office is designed as an integration component that’s embedded into productivity applications, such as Nextcloud Hub. Euro-Office handles document editing, while other elements such as storage and permissions managed by the wider platform.

The open-source project, which is built on OnlyOffice’s codebase, is backed by Nextcloud as well as Eurostack, Ionos, Office.eu, Proton, XWiki, and others. More than 40 individuals have contributed code to Euro-Office, according to Nextcloud, with around 15% of contributions from outside of the organizations directly involved in project.

Euro-Office supports OOXML file formats for compatibility with Microsoft Office, as well as OpenDocument Format (ODF) files, including ODT, ODS and ODP. The Document Foundation, which is responsible for development of LibreOffice, another open-source productivity suite, has previously questioned the Euro-Office initiative’s preference for Microsoft file formats over ODF.

Organizations using Euro-Office include Germany’s Deutsche Telekom Security and Destek, a Turkish IT consultancy, according to Nextcloud. Other customers in countries such as France, Switzerland, and Philippines are currently evaluating the software.

But it’s still early days for Euro-Office. Open-source software initiatives often face a challenge in gaining traction among a broad enterprise audience, said Martha Bennett, VP and principal analyst at Forrester.

“Euro-Office hasn’t really proven itself at the kind of scale that large enterprises are looking for. That’s of course not unique to Euro-Office; all potential open-source alternatives face the same issue,” she said.

“Obviously, it’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation — without somebody taking the leap, it’s not possible to provide that proof.”

Nextcloud Hub Summer 26 updates

Among the other announcements with the Summer 26 updates are changes to management of teams within Nextcloud Hub. An updated Nextcloud Teams app, which is now available in the app menu, provides users with an overview of the teams they belong to. Each team features a folder with shared resources such as files and tasks, which Nextcloud notes is similar to Microsoft’s approach with Teams and SharePoint.

Nextcloud now also enables the creation of team-owned files, starting with Nextcloud Collectives and Deck, with additional apps in future. The aim is to ensure that all team members can access a file, even if the creator leaves the team workspace. For admins, there are new tools to view and manage team folders, including configuring storage quotas.

Among the other announcements are updates to Nextcloud Text — a lightweight text editor available across several apps — with version comparisons, footnotes, and references available throughout a document, and inline comments. Nextcloud Tables, a database app, now has relational columns that link data in cells across multiple tables, and the ability to import and export table structure — such as columns, views, and table-based apps — without changing data.

With Nextcloud’s AI Assistant, users can now upload an image and ask questions about it or translate text, while the chatbot will also recall information across conversations.

UI improvements include a revamped search experience that displays results from across Nextcloud Hub files, messages, and events, with filter options such as date range and people. App menu icons have been updated to make apps easier to recognize, and new animations throughout the interface make navigation and interactions “feel more fluid and easier to follow,” said Nextcloud.ComputerworldRead More