Can you believe it? Microsoft Office soon won’t be called Microsoft Office anymore.
Microsoft is rebranding its 32-year-old software package and giving it a new name: Microsoft 365. The change, spotted by The Verge, can be seen on Microsoft’s official pages, and is explained further in the FAQ.
“Over the last couple years, Microsoft 365 has evolved into our flagship productivity suite, so we are creating an experience to help you get the most out of Microsoft 365. In the coming months, Office.com, the Office mobile app, and the Office app for Windows will become the Microsoft 365 app, with a new icon, a new look, and even more features,” the FAQ says.
These changes will be rolling out for Office.com in November 2022, and in January 2023 for the Office app on Windows, as well as the Office mobile app.
The names of individual apps that comprise the Microsoft Offi…excuse me, the Microsoft 365 software suite, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, and others, are staying the same.
The change has been long in the making, with Microsoft rebranding some of its Office 365 plans to Microsoft 365 back in 2020. The Microsoft 365 branding originally started as a subscription package for an enterprise Windows 10 and Office 365 bundle, but Microsoft gradually decided to turn Microsoft 365 into the umbrella beneath which nearly all other “Office” products reside.
Office isn’t going away entirely, at least not right away. Microsoft says it will continue to offer one-time purchases of individual Office apps via Office 2021 and Office LTSC plans, and there will be no changes to Office 365 subscription plans.