Microsoft confirms you must update as certain Office features will stop working

Microsoft notes that a "major change" is headed to Microsoft Office 365 as admins must update the application or else certain features will stop working after a deadline.

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Microsoft has issued an important update for IT admins and system administrators. The company has confirmed that some Office features are going to lose support and stop working unless the application is updated. The message was posted on the Microsoft 365 Admin Center portal and is related to the Office Intelligent Services features.

For those wondering, Microsoft 365 and Office packs Read Aloud, Transcribe, and Dictate, which come under the ambit of Office Intelligent Services and are meant to improve user convenience. Microsoft says that organizations that rely on these features need to update to version 16.0.18827.20202 or higher to keep accessing them.

Most of these features are integrated mainly into Word, but Outlook and OneNote, as well as PowerPoint, are also impacted.

The tech giant has not gone into full details but does say that it is "upgrading the backend service" that powers these capabilities. Thus it looks like Microsoft may be tweaking and improving the Office Intelligent Service.

This has been labelled as a "major change", something that Microsoft notes in the cases when the scope of the upgrade impacts either the users or the admins or both. The good thing is that admins still have time to process how they wish to proceed as the features will continue to function till January of 2026, so that's around six months of time.

It writes:

To ensure continued high-quality performance of the Read Aloud, Transcription, and Dictation features in Microsoft 365 Office apps, we’re upgrading the backend service that powers these capabilities. As a result, these features will no longer function on Office clients running versions earlier than 16.0.18827.20202 after January 2026.

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To avoid service disruption, ensure that all Office clients are updated to version 16.0.18827.20202 or later before the applicable deadline.

In the case that the app is already updated, Microsoft notes that it will continue to operate normally. For those who have access to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center portal, you can view the announcement under message ID MC1127222.