Apple launched the very first M1-powered Macs earlier this week, and as the world's number 1 software company, Microsoft really wants to be among the first to aid the brand new Apple Silicon.

Now, the Redmond-based software giant announced a testing build of Microsoft Office that's optimized for that new M1 chips, that is pretty much the initial step towards full support for that productivity suite on Apple's new generation of devices.

Microsoft's principal software engineer for Apple products, Erik Schwiebert, explained on Twitter the company doesn't yet possess a specific launch date in mind for the production version of Office for M1-powered Macs.

Testing build already live, no ETA for the production channel

However, there's without doubt Microsoft really wants to make the event happen as fast as possible, especially because the MacBook Air, the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and the Mac mini, all running on Apple Silicon, are projected to hit the shelves on November 17, as per Apple's announcement the 2009 week.

"MSFT plans to push a Universal build of Mac Office 2019 towards the Beta Channel (formerly "Insider Fast") after today. We don't possess a public date or version for any final release; it is really an initial peek for customers to check on hardware they might be acquiring this week," Schwiebert said.

Obviously, it won't take very long before Office goes love Apple Silicon, only that Microsoft still must wait a bit more to prepare the productivity suite for this chip. The company must receive more feedback in the first customers who purchase M1-powered devices and just then provide the go-ahead with this update for everyone else.

Apple is also projected to release macOS Big Sur later today, and Microsoft Office already fully supports this new operating system.