Removing the Companion app from Confluence Cloud

100 comments

Paul Wallace
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September 22, 2022

@Divya Sriram do you have any update on a more "reliable and effective experience" or its ETA? 

Thanks

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Jacques
Contributor
October 3, 2022

Atlassian team, please take a look at what they're doing at Dropbox... they let you edit files with Office online. Even if you don't have a valid license. I guess Atlassian should negotiate with MS to have a similar feature for online editing.

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chris.grom
Contributor
November 10, 2022

Has there been any attempt to remedy the effects of the loss of the Companion App? I have been waiting several months to hear back from customer service. One of your reps did call us, but there has been no contact since. Thank you.

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chris.grom
Contributor
January 19, 2023

I am hoping that someone from Atlassian will respond. One more time, will there be an effort to remedy the loss of the Companion App for your customers? Thank you.

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Rodney Hughes
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February 21, 2023

Dear Atlassian team that have responded to this thread at times

@Avni Barman 

@Alex K 

@Divya Sriram 

Where is the "native Confluence" replacement you have promised us?

I have over 7000 Users in our instance of Confluence .. many are now telling me that Sharepoint does this direct edit of Word/Excel/PowerPoint files with "no problem"

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André Ulrich
Contributor
February 21, 2023

@Rodney Hughesthere is an alternative for Companion App: GoEdit

Works for Confluence Cloud / Server / Data Center and also for Jira Server / Data Center!

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Kevin Morris
Contributor
February 22, 2023

Removing a free feature and then advertising a paid feature is greasy. Also seems to be Atlassian's MO, to nerf their product so that you have to pay extra for add-ons that don't integrate seamlessly.

For everyone frustrated with this multi-year non-development; here are some options that allow you to edit embedded Microsoft word/excel/ppt files in your knowledge management software; Most of them have better pricing models too. Some of them have JIRA integration as well.

- Lark Suite

- OnlyOffice

- SharePoint (not much better than Confluence IMO)

- Nextcloud

- TWake

- Slite (with google docs integration)

- Coda.io (with google docs integration)

- Jamespot

- Jetbrains Space (technical teams)

- ClickUp (AFAIK)

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Florian Schmidt
Contributor
April 26, 2023

Any news here? Still hardly needed feature.

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Vishal Patel
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June 15, 2023

"How Atlassian lost its way"  - looking forward to watching this on Netflix. Maybe this comment will get a few seconds of fame.

 

@Avni Barman:

1) Statistics mean nothing to the individual and can mislead without contextual understanding.

2) Not all clients complain actively. They will ride silently of a few more active and engaging clients who will stick there neck out to give constructive feedback.

3) Cloud is your strategic future, undermine it through complacency and people will look for alternatives.

4) Your competitors are watching and want your business. 500lb gorillas in the room can be upended and pushed out the door.

5) Why not solve this problem or give a clear date to deliver such a basic feature?

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Mark Euwe
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June 15, 2023

Unbelievable poor performance of Atlassian….a strategic blooper combined with a false promise, pretty much text book how it should not be done

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adm-s.bosman
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June 16, 2023

So, Still no solution to this, 1,5 years later?
We're forced to migrate to the cloud, and lose a very important feature in the process.

Download, Edit, Reupload is NOT a user friendly option.

I get that dev time is precious and there are probably a million items in the backlog, but this is a very basic feature that needs to be present in enterprise worthy solutions.

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Robert Bijster
Contributor
June 16, 2023

We have meanwhile moved to Microsoft SharePoint and are no longer using Confluence to store and edit Office files, nor do we intend to ever do so in the future, given Atlassian's position.

The sad thing is that nobody at Atlassian truly seems to care.

At one point, @Divya Sriram posted the following comment, suggesting that Atlassian wants to listen after all:

We see your feedback on removal of the Companion App in the Cloud, and would love to hear from you.

But when 14 months go by without another peep from Atlassian, this tells me loud and clear that the they really don't "love to hear from us".

If they did, they'd have acknowledged that Atlassian has no intention to offer alternative Office editing capabilities in the future.

Just say 'No, we will not provide an alternative to the companion app'.

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KontextWork June 16, 2023

@adm-s.bosmanthere is a user friendly solution for Confluence Cloud, to edit files: GoEdit

Rodney Hughes
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June 16, 2023

@adm-s.bosman 

Just to note .. just because Atlassian are not providing further updates of SERVER does not mean you HAVE to move to CLOUD!

Keep your SERVER .. we did our last upgrade to v7.17.1 whilst we could.
Yes there are still some bugs here and there or features in need of enhancement, but SERVER has been working for us for 12 years now in various versions .. so "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" (with something else that is far inferior)

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Charlie Misonne
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June 16, 2023

@Rodney Hughes 

Ok but you won't get any security updates and that's a no-go for many companies. Even when their instance is not accessible from the internet.

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Jens Hassler
Contributor
September 6, 2023

We just moved to the shiny new cloud from our on-premise installation (cause we were forced to) and now this great feature is gone - can't believe it, actually. That was one of the things Confluence did right. 

A real collaboration platform should allow Office file editing in an easy way (via WebDAV or plugins like the companion app). Otherwise you're forcing users outside of your ecosystem. You can't be serious about the hint "use Google instead". WTF?

Hope some alternative comes up - but currently I see nothing, and that is 2 years after this "announcement".

We don't like your company.

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André Ulrich
Contributor
September 7, 2023

@Jens Hasslerjust like to mention that you can use GoEdit in Confluence Cloud instead, so you don´t miss any functionality

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Jens Hassler
Contributor
September 7, 2023

@André Ulrich We are evaluating it. Too bad that 3rd party companies have to re-implement widely needed features that were already present in the main product. Of course it increases the whole product cost, but currently that seems to be the best solution.

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Ian B
Contributor
September 7, 2023

@André Ulrich can you stop mentioning that, please? This is the fourth (maybe fifth?) time you've marketed your marketplace app - people commenting have read this thread, and your solution is not a solution to the original issue of Atlassian treating customers like this.

The decision to sunset the app was foolish.

The decision to not address the true reasons behind it - security - was cowardly.

The decision to not engage properly with the customers who really did need this feature built-in is offensive.

The de-prioritisation of dealing with this problem and providing a native solution, leaving it to marketplace vendors to provide paid solutions, whilst continuing to break out your other products and charge customers even more money for the same stuff (Jira Work Management) is outright fraudulent. 

Finally, you marketing repeatedly at commenters in this thread is just plain annoying. 

It'd be nice for them to address this problem, but they won't. We have our answer - marketplace vendors will fill the gap, they do not care. This is evident from the total lack of update.

Atlassian is baiting and switching, and forcing companies into licensing and operating models most beneficial to their sales figures. Be very wary - just as with Google's evolution, this is not the "no bullshit" Atlassian we all knew and loved. They lost that a while back. 

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Reese
Contributor
November 24, 2023

Hmm. I feel sorry for Cloud users. "Magical" Cloud - they got you under their thumbs.

They need a solution, just glad I am on Confluence DC.... Do better Atlassian. People shouldn't have to pay extra for a feature they had included (they're your customer).

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Kent Urbaniak
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January 31, 2024

We just recently made the jump to cloud and I can't get over that this feature isn't built in.  I'm 100% with everyone in this thread, I don't want to have to pay for a feature that existed for years before the forced cloud migration.  

Now we are back to 2 people working on the same document and then uploading it to Confluence only to have one of their versions get stepped on without anyone's knowledge.  Boo Atlassian, Boo. 

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Charlie Misonne
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February 6, 2024

@Kent Urbaniak I stopped uploading documents to Confluence Cloud.

I save them in OneDrive and paste the link on the Confluence page so me and my colleagues can edit it simultaneously.

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Rodney Hughes
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March 7, 2024

@Charlie Misonne 

I understand your earlier response to my post June 16 last year about sticking with server and not migrating to cloud .. indeed we have just moved to the "absolute last" Server that we'll do as 8.5.5

Yes there may be security things that pop up against S8.5.5 - if that happens we'll move to Data Centre .. and DEFINITELY not to the (IMHO and experience in another instance - but many agree and comment) feature impaired and impoverished Cloud

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Toni Laine
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May 6, 2024

Hi,

Same story here, we are being forced to upgrade to cloud, and Companion is quite heavily used on our instance. This matter should have been issued and fixed natively already. 

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Ian B
Contributor
September 10, 2024

Hey @Avni Barman , @Alex K, @Divya Sriram - long time no hear!

Edit: oh dear; it looks like Divya and Alex are no longer with you - sorry to hear that :(

Just wondering if you have that native solution you promised a few years ago yet, or at least a solid timeline..?

I see a lot of other much smaller companies implementing Office editing without even having to redirect to the office webapp... Why has atlassian deprioritised this? 

Hey @Tanguy Crusson - you're good at clearing up miscommunication - reckon you could give your erstwhile colleagues a nudge on this one? 

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