For the past few days, there has been an uproar on social media from infuriated users claiming that Microsoft has rebranded its iconic Office apps to Microsoft 365 Copilot. This allegation stemmed from some people noticing certain wording on Microsoft"s Office website, which led them to believe that this was a recent branding change. Microsoft has now categorically denied these claims of rebranding its popular Office apps.
Basically, social media users, particularly on X (formerly Twitter), noticed that the Office website had the following marketing blurb: "The Microsoft 365 Copilot app (formerly Office) lets you create, share, and collaborate all in one place with your favorite apps now including Copilot."
This led to massive backlash in online spheres, claiming that Microsoft is once again trying to shove Copilot down the throats of its customers by eliminating the iconic Office brand.
In a statement to The Verge"s Tom Warren, Microsoft 365"s Senior Director explained that this is not the case at all, and there has been no recent rebranding of the Office apps:
We"ve not made any recent naming changes to our Office apps. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint — the office apps within the Microsoft 365 suite productivity suite — remain unchanged. In November 2022, we renamed only the Office "hub" app for web and mobile to the Microsoft 365 app. In January 2025, we updated it to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app to reflect its role in bringing Copilot and Microsoft 365 productivity experiences together in one place.
Indeed, Microsoft has rebranded some of its services to include the Copilot brand, and is busy renaming several more, but that does not mean that the Office brand has gone away. While renaming the Office hub to Microsoft 365 Copilot may have caused confusion for some customers, this is not a recent change at all. As a reminder, the perpetual version of Office still exists and it is foundationally different than the Office apps found in the Microsoft 365 subscription.