Microsoft Office to Become 'Microsoft 365' in Biggest Brand Overhaul in More Than 30 Years

[MacRumors]

Microsoft Office will soon officially be renamed "Microsoft 365," in the biggest rebranding of the company's office productivity software in more than 30 years (via The Verge).

You may have heard of Microsoft 365 already – that's because Microsoft renamed Office 365 subscriptions to Microsoft 365 two years ago.

But in the coming months, Office.com, the Office mobile app, and the Office app for Windows will all share the name of a new Microsoft 365 app, "with a new icon, a new look, and even more features," according to a company FAQ.

As part of the rebrand, traditional Office apps like Excel, Outlook, Word, and Powerpoint will all come under the Microsoft 365 umbrella, rather than be referred to as part of Microsoft Office.

For Apple device owners, the name change will likely be seen first in the Office iOS app. The Microsoft 365 mobile app replacing it will include a new apps module for commonly used cloud-based 365 tools, a central content hub and workflow feed, and a new tagging system for organizing content.

Perhaps somewhat confusingly however, Office 2021 for Windows and Mac will continue to be offered as a one-time purchase under the same name for the foreseeable future, as will Office LTSC (Long-Term Servicing Channel), even though Microsoft Office is now essentially a legacy brand.

Microsoft says changes will begin rolling out for Office.com in November 2022, and then changes will begin rolling out for the Office app on Windows and the Office mobile app in January 2023.

Article Link: Microsoft Office to Become 'Microsoft 365' in Biggest Brand Overhaul in More Than 30 Years

 

[Toratek]

Meanwhile, I still use the Apple suite of equivalent apps and email converted documents. I refuse to pollute my macs with anything from Redmond.

 

[JosephAW]

Probably means that they will no longer offer an option to buy MS Office outright but only offer a subscription option where your computer always has to be online.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

I think Microsoft Office sounds better. What does the “365” pertain to? It makes me think of Whole Foods 365.

 

[DMG35]

Dumb name.

 

[bice]

Probably means that they will no longer offer an option to buy MS Office outright but only offer a subscription option where your computer always has to be online.

Reading this section of the article above might ease your worries.

"Office 2021 for Windows and Mac will continue to be offered as a one-time purchase under the same name for the foreseeable future, as will Office LTSC (Long-Term Servicing Channel), even though Microsoft Office is now essentially a legacy brand"

 

[timber]

Office is such a well established name and 365 on the other hand just doesn't mean anything. Well, cars do prove numbers can also be valuable brands but one just wonders what do they get out of this.

In the end everyone will probably just shrug and keep using their corporate issued tools.

 

[OllyW]

Probably means that they will no longer offer an option to buy MS Office outright but only offer a subscription option where your computer always has to be online.

That may happen in the future but you are currently still able buy it outright.

Office 2021 for Windows and Mac will continue to be offered as a one-time purchase under the same name for the foreseeable future

 

[contacos]

JUST as I get the old folks to understand that "Word" is not "Windows" when I try to remotely trouble shoot

 

[aries81]

JUST as I get the old folks to understand that "Word" is not "Windows"

With that out of the way you can now concentrate on convincing them that Google is NOT a browser or, even more commonly assumed, the internet.

 

[iphonehype]

Meanwhile, I still use the Apple suite of equivalent apps and email converted documents. I refuse to pollute my macs with anything from Redmond.

Um. Whats wrong with Microsoft 365? Also most of the websites you visit run in Microsoft Azure, so its 'polluted'

 

[TonyC28]

Every four years there will be one day when you are unable to use the apps.

 

[beanbaguk]

I feel like I'm suffering from Deja Vu suddenly when I see members on here moaning about subscription models. I literally just wrote a post on this topic on another thread.

Here's the full article, but below is a summary of what I said: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...tures-and-complications.2365350/post-31617006

People have a very narrow-minded view of subscriptions and simply bemoan them without thinking about why companies are taking this approach. Times have changed people.

It was a very different world in software development before subscription models existed. Only Windows and Mac versions existed. Sometimes it was just the one. There were fewer updates. You didn't expect the developers to support a cloud platform. You also had lower support expectations as you didn't expect a reply within the day.

With a sub-model, you are supporting your favourite software. You are supporting the development and future of the product, and you are paying for the ongoing costs.

So before whining about subscription models, how about you look at why the economics of products have changed? You want cloud features. You want constant updates. You want 24/7 support. You want it across all your devices.

A one-time fee simply doesn't provide the necessary income to support this. A subscription model does, plus it allows users always to receive the latest version of the software.

Cloud data needs to be stored somewhere and this has costs yet we want more and more storage. Who pays for this? Who pays for the developers constantly delivering updates? Who pays for their business costs? Who pays for their marketing, research and more? Do you think it's all free?

Finally, many moan about subscription costs yet everyone is completely oblivious to the fact that we all laughed at the iPhones launch price of $600, yet nobody bats an eyelid today spending $1600 on today's 13 Pro Max....(double the cost if you were to value it in today's money).

I'm not saying all software should be subscription based. Small utilities and accessories don't deserve this, but full-fledged packages (even from the likes of Microsoft and Adobe), are well-suited to subscription models.

 

[mscuthbert]

Ugh. Read the threads on how “Modern Comments” destroyed the entire workflow for university teachers using Word to comment on papers (hint: when grading we don’t want to work in real-time with our students) and I can only dread what this might mean for people who make presentations and documents by themselves. They shed the “Office” name while making tools that only work in a Corporate office

 

[beatrixwillius]

And new Outlook still doesn't support AppleScript fully or do import/export. After 2 or 3 now???

 

[gonsawa_]

I think Microsoft Office sounds better. What does the “365” pertain to? It makes me think of Whole Foods 365.

I think that they want to further themselves from the “office” idea. The traditional office is becoming outdated in the age of remote working, so I guess Microsoft wants to fully embrace that and go all 365.

 

[antiprotest]

I think Microsoft Office sounds better. What does the “365” pertain to? It makes me think of Whole Foods 365.

It means you work every day of the year and don't get any days off, ever.

 

[SoldOnApple]

Ugh. Read the threads on how “Modern Comments” destroyed the entire workflow for university teachers using Word to comment on papers (hint: when grading we don’t want to work in real-time with our students) and I can only dread what this might mean for people who make presentations and documents by themselves. They shed the “Office” name while making tools that only work in a Corporate office

C'mon, the teacher can save an offline copy of the live document, make comments, and then share the commented on offline file back to the student. It's not exactly rocket science. Saving an offline version of a live file is one more thing to learn but it's not exactly a hard thing to learn, I think university professors and school teachers are more than capable.

 

[RandomTox]

I think Microsoft Office sounds better. What does the “365” pertain to? It makes me think of Whole Foods 365.

365 stands for subscription. Milking more $$$ as everybody else.

 

[G3Blue]

Here’s hoping the next news from Microsoft is Teams is being permanently blown to pieces and discontinued.

 

[RandomTox]

Smart corps want to make everything subscription based in the world. It's all about recurring revenues. Next step will be a guaranteed income combineds with obligatory subscription package. No more freedom to choose or influence anything and rich getting richer.

 

[addamas]

Pay monthly subscription or don’t work… nice. Lessons learnt from Adobe, but these bad ones.

 

[AboveGroundLevel]

Stupid name. Office has such a great reputation I don’t see why they would shoot themselves in the foot.

This means only one thing, office will turn100% subscription.

 

[Rradcircless]

Child, you should see how poorly Microsoft Word for Mac stacks up against Windows. I migrated from Windows to Mac for the power of M1 and Apple ecosystem unity but hot damn, there are some really intuitive quality of life controls missing from Word for Mac. You can make headers and navigate through them on Mac, but unlike Windows, you can't click and drag to rearrange them, which means you must copy and paste an entire section.

I hope this rebrand gives us Mac users everything they've been withholding, though I sense they've been doing it to incentivise us to go Windows.

 

[polyphenol]

Let's hope that the "new icons" will make Word and Outlook distinguishable by more than an illegibly small letter and a subtle shift in shading.

If not, just leave them as they are. Please.