Microsoft has once again found itself at the center of online confusion, after claims spread across Reddit, Hacker News, and X suggesting that the company had renamed Microsoft Office to “Microsoft 365 Copilot.” While the reports gained traction, the core claim is inaccurate: the Office productivity suite has not been rebranded under that name.
The misunderstanding stems largely from Microsoft’s own messaging on its long-standing Office.com domain. For more than a year, the website has directed both individual users and organisations toward what is now called the Microsoft 365 Copilot app.
This application serves as a central hub, offering access to Copilot features alongside familiar tools such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Visitors to Office.com are greeted with a prominent banner welcoming them to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, accompanied by an explanatory note stating, “The Microsoft 365 Copilot app (formerly Office).” That phrasing has fueled assumptions that the Office brand itself has been replaced, even though the reference applies only to the app, not the product suite.
The app in question traces its origins to 2019, when Microsoft launched a unified Office app designed to promote web-based versions of its productivity tools. Over time, the app underwent several name changes.
It was later known as the Microsoft 365 app, but in November 2024, Microsoft announced that it would rebrand the app once again — this time incorporating the Copilot name. The updated branding and icon began rolling out to Windows, iOS, and Android users in mid-January last year.
Despite the renewed attention, Microsoft’s broader branding strategy for its productivity software has remained unchanged since 2022. The subscription-based suite is still marketed as Microsoft 365. Alongside it, the company still sells Office 2024, a one-time purchase option that excludes cloud-based features and continuous updates available through a Microsoft 365 subscription.
Asked to clarify the confusion surrounding Office, Microsoft 365, and Copilot branding, Microsoft declined to provide an on-the-record response.
As discussions continue online, the episode underscores how overlapping product names and repeated rebrands have made it increasingly difficult for users to distinguish between Microsoft’s apps, services, and subscriptions. Given the company’s history, industry watchers would not be surprised if another rebrand appears in the future.
