The plug-in is expected to become part of Office

Mar 27, 2015 12:52 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has recently purchased LiveLoop, a company that developed a PowerPoint plugin that turned any presentation into a web-based file that could be easily accessed via a URL.

While the exact details of the agreement haven't been provided, an official statement posted on the LiveLoop website confirms that the plug-in will no longer be available separately, hinting that, at some point in the future, it could become part of the Office productivity suite to offer the very same features without the need for third-party installs.

“LiveLoop will be shutting down permanently on April 24th, 2015. New user registration and presentation upload have been disabled. Existing LiveLoop users: if you have any data you would like to retrieve from LiveLoop, please do so before April 24th. On April 24th, all presentations and user data will be permanently deleted,” the notification posted online reads.

Microsoft is already working on a new version of Office that's expected to launch in the fall of 2015, so LiveLoop could thus be part of the next PowerPoint version. It's not yet clear whether the touch-optimized versions of PowerPoint designed to run on tablets and smartphones could get the same features when they become available later this year.

Microsoft hasn't yet confirmed the acquisition publicly, but it has issued a statement explaining that it's working to make LiveLoop software “part of our strategy and vision to reinvent productivity.”