Microsoft is in the midst of reorganizing its flagship productivity suite while simultaneously invoking a rebranding of its software stack across platforms with a new single Microsoft 365 app.
If you''re unconcerned about yesterday''s Ignite release of a new Office 365 app, and consider that Microsoft already utilized the Microsoft 365 technology widely, with its various Office and cloud services, then you''d be wrong.
Microsoft began identifying paid Office 365 users as part of its Microsoft 365 family, which focused on the subscription content of the platform. However, it appears Microsoft is ready to make a bigger play in rounding up all its services under a simple grouping and simply identifying a single service as Microsoft 365, ala Amazon Prime.
Microsoft has announced that "Microsoft Office is changing to Microsoft 365," and what that means for Office users is that along with the seemingly odd naming convention, there will be a new unified experience in organizing and communicating across a larger suite off Microsoft software experiences.
Microsoft will rebrand the recently launched Office 365 app on Windows and mobile to the rest of the Microsoft 365 platform and invoke a new logo to reflect the consolidation. Along with the subtle visual change to the new Microsoft 365, users are expected to gain additional features:
Each of the old Office 365 apps will be enhanced with their own refreshed icons to confirm their accension to Microsoft 365 status. The first visual changes to the Office 365 apps will begin on the web in November, with Windows, iOS, and Android versions.
Microsoft''s move to manage its Office 365 applications under this larger brand aids in highlighting disparate app situations like Teams and Stream as part of the ecosystem family, and may assist cross app engagement.
Most people will benefit from the same features as "Office", "Office 365," or "those damn Microsoft products." The changes announced yesterday are more or less a position for Microsoft''s future, where the company can consolidate more of its product categories under easy to recognize brands while also assembling even more services.
Microsoft appears to envision a future in which users will only have "Microsoft 365" subscriptions, such as the Office suite, any future creative apps, Azure, a virtual Windows license, and Game Pass for various pricing levels.