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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- The Office suite has not been rebranded to Microsoft 365 Copilot.
- The web-based version was renamed Microsoft 365 in 2022.
- Microsoft still has a bad reputation for naming and renaming its products.
Microsoft has a bad reputation when it comes to naming its products and services. Sometimes the company will pick a name for a product and then change it. Other times, it will use the same name or a similar name for different products. The names themselves can be confusing and cumbersome. All of that explains why many people have jumped to conclusions over the alleged renaming of Microsoft Office.
Recent posts on such sites as X, Reddit, and Hacker News have claimed that Microsoft has renamed its familiar Office product to Microsoft 365 Copilot, as reported by The Verge. Though the posters are in error, the mistake is easy enough to make. And it’s mainly Microsoft’s own fault.
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The product page for the Microsoft 365 Copilot app states the following right off the bat: “The Microsoft 365 Copilot app (formerly Office) lets you create, share, and collaborate all in one place with your favorite apps, now including Copilot.” With most people likely assuming that Office refers to the popular software suite, the implication here is that the Office name has been replaced by an AI-infused brand. But that’s not the case.
The Office mentioned on the product page is actually the website through which you can access free web versions of all the core programs. That site also proclaims: “Get free access to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint using Microsoft 365 for the web (formerly Office).”
It gets more and more confusing
Like other Microsoft products, Office did undergo a rebranding, but that happened a few years ago. In 2022, Microsoft rechristened Office to Microsoft 365. The idea was to market the suite as a cloud-based product, rather than just a desktop productivity program. The company also wanted to distinguish the subscription-based and web-based products from their desktop counterpart.
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To add to the confusion, Microsoft added Copilot to Microsoft 365 in 2024. Along with that move came a price increase to the Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions. Microsoft ultimately botched the entire process, creating further confusion among its users.
In line with that move, however, the company rebranded Microsoft 365 to Microsoft 365 Copilot at the start of 2025. However, the product page for the three main consumer subscriptions still refers to them as Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, and Premium, with no Copilot as part of the name. So who can say what the official name is now?
But wait, there’s more confusion. The name Office still exists, though it refers strictly to the one-time purchase desktop version, with the latest iteration being Microsoft Office 2024. Microsoft 365 or Microsoft 365 Copilot refers to the subscription and web versions with OneDrive, Teams, and other tools thrown in.
Also: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a total disaster
And if you want even more confusion, there’s a separate product called Microsoft 365 Copilot. Another version of the free Copilot chatbot, this one comes with Microsoft 365 and is designed to help you tackle tasks in the workplace.
Perhaps there’s some internal logic within Microsoft that explains its ever-changing and complicated naming conventions. As for me, I’ve now got a headache just thinking about it all.
