Meanwhile, rumors around the internet claim that Microsoft has renamed Office to the “Microsoft 365 Copilot app.” That’s not true. The mix-up comes from Microsoft’s Office.com portal, not from any move to rename Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or the larger Office suite.
The screenshot that has ignited the rumor shows the wording “The Microsoft 365 Copilot app (formerly Office)…” This sentence doesn’t refer to the apps; it refers to the web portal’s branding — first called Office, then rebranded to Microsoft 365, and more recently to Microsoft 365 Copilot app. And as The Verge and How-To Geek reported, the wording has been there for months, according to the Internet Archive.
What Actually Changed With Microsoft’s Web Portal Branding
Microsoft runs a hub where people sign in to view their files, apps, and services. That hub was previously labeled “Office,” then “Microsoft 365,” and now is being promoted as the “Microsoft 365 Copilot app.” The “formerly Office” label is just a breadcrumb for users who know the former name of the portal. That doesn’t mean Word is now called Copilot, or that Excel has changed its name.
The misread spread far and wide — across Bluesky, Reddit, X, and LinkedIn — and it was amplified by prominent AI accounts. The original text hasn’t suddenly surfaced; it has only been rediscovered and misunderstood. What you are seeing labeled as “formerly Office” on that page is the portal name, not a product rename.
Office Apps Remain Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint Keep Names
“We continue to deliver improvements for the Office apps across devices, and I’m excited to share that our new update today brings rich feature updates to the years-old Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2019,” wrote Jared Spataro, corporate vice president of Microsoft 365, in a post.
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook are also available as one-time purchase versions.
These apps remain the products users have known for decades. What is new, however, is the increasingly deep integration of Copilot — a generative AI layer that can write documents, distill meetings, interpret spreadsheets, and construct presentations on its own while not replacing the apps — into other Microsoft platforms.
In the case of corporations, Microsoft 365 Copilot is offered as an add-on only, with prices commonly quoted starting at $30 per user per month. As for individuals, Copilot Pro is a standalone subscription that costs $20/month. These AI features are meant to be plugged into the Office apps; they are not a rebranding of those apps. You still open Word to write, Excel to model, and PowerPoint to present — Copilot just helps you do those things.
Concrete examples:
- Generate a first-draft PowerPoint from a Word document.
- Suggest formulas and data summaries in Excel.
- Rewrite paragraphs in Word.
- Produce Teams meeting recaps.
These features live inside the apps you already have and respect your subscription and organizational settings.
Why The Frustration Keeps Resurfacing Around Copilot Names
Microsoft’s brand galaxy sprawls mightily, and “Copilot” has landed in multiple locations. In addition to the “Microsoft 365 Copilot app” branding on its web portal, there’s a Copilot mobile app for iOS and Android, and a Microsoft 365 Copilot desktop app for Windows that acts as a center point across services. There’s even Copilot in Windows, which is baked into the OS. It’s easy to see how repetition of the same name through different entry points fosters confusion.
History adds to the mix. Microsoft previously changed the name of “Office 365” to “Microsoft 365.” So when users read “formerly Office,” some conclude the core apps have been rebranded yet again. They were not. With hundreds of millions of people using Microsoft 365, subtle differences in wording can ripple through feeds and forums.
How To Check Your Plan, App Names, And Copilot Access
If you’re confused about what you’re using, open any desktop app and look at its title bar or Help > About screen — Word is still Word, Excel is still Excel. At the hub on the web, you’ll recognize the Microsoft 365 app launcher with classic icons. Admins can check Copilot licensing and rollout in the Microsoft 365 admin center and Message center. To view timing on features across Microsoft, you can read both official blog posts and the Microsoft 365 Roadmap.
When viral posts claim large-scale renamings, seek corroboration from Microsoft’s own explanatory materials or established reporting. In this situation, at least, that “formerly Office” wording is about portals, not a product rebirth (as also confirmed by capture history from the Internet Archive).
The Bottom Line: Office Isn’t Being Renamed To Copilot
Office is not being rebranded as Copilot. The buzz can be traced back to a portal label that refers to an old site name, not any shift in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. Copilot is an increasingly powerful AI assistant built into Microsoft 365 — but it doesn’t supplant the Office apps, which continue to be at work’s core.
