Microsoft is rebranding Microsoft Office. After more than 30 years of development, Microsoft Office has been renamed “Microsoft 365” to better reflect the software giant’s growing collection of productivity applications.
Office applications such as Excel, Outlook, Word and PowerPoint, while not going away, have been integrated as part of Microsoft 365 rather than a productivity suite like Microsoft Office.
Microsoft has been pushing for a rebranding after Office 365 subscriptions were renamed Microsoft 365 subscriptions two years ago, and now there’s a deeper change. On the FAQ page, Microsoft says, “Over the next few months, Office.com, Office mobile apps and Office apps for Windows will become Microsoft 365 apps, with new icons, a new look and more features.”
This means that if you use any dedicated Office apps, they will soon be upgraded to Microsoft 365 with the new logo. The first logo and design changes will appear on Office.com in November, followed by the renaming of Office apps on Windows, iOS and Android in January.
Upon completion of the integration, Microsoft 365 will include Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Loop, Clipchamp, Stream and the new Designer application. Central Microsoft 365 applications for mobile and desktop will include synopses of relevant colleagues and meetings, a hub for all files and documents, and custom tags for grouping and organizing content.
The Microsoft Office brand will not disappear immediately, however. Microsoft will continue to offer one-time purchases of Office application packages to consumers and businesses through its Office 2021 and Office LTSC programs.
Microsoft Office is now a legacy Microsoft brand, which means that when new features are announced, they will appear in Microsoft 365 rather than Microsoft Office.
