Microsoft revamps Office 365 for both home and business to confuse us even more

God help us.

Say goodbye to Office 365 – it’s now Microsoft 365…weeelll except when it’s not in some cases. But it is in others. UGH! Really guys, you couldn’t have picked a better time?

Microsoft has announced a number of changes to Office 365 – the company’s world-famous productivity suite. Moving away from the ‘Office’ name and towards just Microsoft 365, the changes are inspired by an introduction of more artificial intelligence capabilities.

“The Office suite is core to the Microsoft productivity experience…but in Microsoft 365 we’re breathing new life into these apps with the help of the cloud and AI,” says Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365. “It’s Office and a whole lot more.”

What’s happening with Office 365 Personal and Home?

Office 365 Personal and Home will now don the Microsoft moniker instead – Personal becomes Microsoft 365 Personal while Home will now be Microsoft 365 Family. With this also come new features. Microsoft Editor gets several improvements, there is much better financial planning in Excel, and Microsoft is also introducing the Family Safety app which will allow parents to track their kids’ usage habits and physical location among other things.

For existing customers, these features are being implemented over the coming days. For any new customers that want to purchase a Microsoft 365 subscription, the changes will be available from 21st April.

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What about Office for small and medium-sized businesses?

IT admins are going to absolutely adore Microsoft after these changes. Coming at the perfect time when everything is chaos and no one knows what existence even is anymore, no new features have been announced for business versions of Office but Microsoft are renaming a few things. Let’s get to it.

Licenses for Business Essentials becomes Business Basic, but Business Premium will now be Microsoft 365 Business Standard. Of course, logically, Microsoft 365 Business now becomes Business Premium and don’t forget Office 365 Business and ProPlus will now be called Microsoft 365 Apps – one will be ‘for business’ and the other ‘for enterprise’. Got it? Of course you don’t. Here’s a handy table to help.

Old Name New Name Office 365 Business Essentials Microsoft 365 Business Basic Office 365 Business Premium Microsoft 365 Business Standard Microsoft 365 Business Microsoft 365 Business Premium Office 365 Business Microsoft 365 Apps for business Office 365 ProPlus Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise

This change will also take effect on 21st April. If you use automatic deployment rules in SCCM, you may have to prepare – here’s a handy guide.

If you have an interest in Microsft 365 qualifications, why not check out The Definitive Guide to Microsoft Technical Certifications and Exams

Any changes to other plans such as Enterprise?

Nope.

All other plan names are remaining the same including Office 365 for Enterprise and the same E1, E3, and E5 licenses will remain available. This also goes for Office for Education, Government, and Firstline Workers.

What a mess.

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