No, Microsoft didn’t rebrand Office to Microsoft 365 Copilot | The Verge

Microsoft has confused the Internet once again. Over the past few days, posts on Reddit, Hacker News, and X have claimed that Microsoft has rebranded Microsoft Office as Microsoft 365 Copilot. Even though Microsoft likes to flaunt its Copilot branding everywhere, Office hasn’t been renamed to the “Microsoft 365 Copilot app.”

The confusion comes from Microsoft’s own Office.com domain, which over the past year has served as a way to push businesses and consumers to use the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. This app is a hub app that provides access to Copilot, as well as all Office apps. Microsoft simply called this app Office, before the company rebranded Office as Microsoft 365 in 2022.

If you visit Office.com, you’ll see a welcome message to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app and a note from Microsoft that might confuse anyone who doesn’t follow the company’s confusing branding: “The Microsoft 365 Copilot app (formerly Office)…”

This mention of “formerly Office” refers to Microsoft’s very old Office application launched in 2019 to try to convince people to use online versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Until a year ago, it was called the Microsoft 365 app. Microsoft then announced that it would rename its Microsoft 365 app in November 2024 to a Copilot app, which was very confusing for me and everyone. The new app icon and name – Microsoft 365 Copilot – was then rolled out on January 15 last year to Windows, iOS and Android users.

I don’t know why the Internet is only just finding out about these changes a year later, but the current suite of Office apps is still a subscription plan called Microsoft 365. Nothing has changed with that branding since 2022. Hell, if you want to be even more confused by Microsoft’s branding choices, you can buy Microsoft Office 2024, a standalone version of the Office suite without all the cloud features and latest updates you get with a Microsoft 365 subscription.

I asked Microsoft for comment on the confusion around its Office and Microsoft 365 Copilot brands, but the company declined to provide an official statement.

Now that you’re familiar with all of Microsoft’s latest Office brands, I’m sure it won’t be long before the company rebrands Copilot in the most Microsoft way possible.