The software giant is renaming it to “Microsoft 365” to place it under its umbrella of productivity apps.
Microsoft Office has been a big name in the productivity market for decades, but the Redmond giant decided to give it a fresh coat of paint. Soon, the Microsoft Office suite will be rebranded as “Microsoft 365”.
Microsoft Office gets a name change
As spotted by Ars-TechnicaMicrosoft made an announcement on the Microsoft 365 website on the name change. It has a handy FAQ that answers many questions about the change:
Over the past two years, Microsoft 365 has become our flagship productivity suite, so we’re creating an experience to help you get the most out of Microsoft 365. In the coming months, Office.com, the Office mobile app and Office app for Windows will become the Microsoft 365 app, with a new icon, a new look and even more features.
Microsoft says it plans to make this change in November 2022, so it won’t be long before Office gets a facelift.
Microsoft is quick to add that this does not mean that the suite of applications including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc. won’t go away. The company just wants to bring Office under its Microsoft 365 umbrella. The name change won’t stop you from buying and downloading Office 2021 either.
An unnecessary change from Microsoft?
The company’s decision to rebrand its Office suite as Microsoft 365 comes as a bit of a shock. The words “Microsoft Office” have long been a well-known brand name, both in business and at home.
In fact, the word “Office” has been a beacon of hope for those who prefer to buy and own their productivity suites, instead of paying Microsoft 365’s subscription service for a cloud-based product. And now that Office is merging with Microsoft 365 in name, it may confuse people about cloud-based parts and standalone apps.
And given that the change will roll out in a month, there seems to be little time to let people know about the change. We’ll have to see if this change confuses people, or if the user base can easily adapt to the name change.
Finally leaving the office
It’s been a while, but Office will soon make way for the Microsoft 365 brand. Whether or not the change will be well received will have to be seen.
