Microsoft has once again confused the internet. In posts over the past two days on Reddit, Hacker News, and X, Microsoft has referred to Microsoft Office as Microsoft 365 Copilot. As Microsoft likes to ditch 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 has been working since last year 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 used to simply call the app Office, before the company renamed Office to Microsoft 365 in 2022.
If you go to Office.com, you’ll see a big welcome to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, and a note from Microsoft that will confuse anyone not familiar with the company’s confusing branding: “The Microsoft 365 Copilot app (formerly Office)…”
This reference to “former Office” is Microsoft referring to the very old Office app that it launched in 2019 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 was moving its Microsoft 365 app to a copilot in November 2024, which left me and everyone else very confused. A new app icon and name – Microsoft 365 Copilot – then rolled out to Windows, iOS, and Android users on January 15 last year.
I’m not sure why the internet only discovered these changes a year later, but the original suite of Office apps is a subscription plan called Microsoft 365. Nothing has changed in this branding since 2022. Subscription
I asked Microsoft for comment on the confusion surrounding its Office and Microsoft 365 Copilot branding, but the company declined to provide an on-the-record statement.
Now that you’re working with Microsoft’s latest Office branding, I’m sure it won’t be long until the company rebrands Copy in a very Microsoft way.
