Office 365 becomes Microsoft 365 – new name and new features

Microsoft 365 is the next iteration of Office 365, the subscription-based, cloud-delivered Office suite comprising Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, One Note, OneDrive, Skype and more.

Microsoft 365 will cost no more than Office 365. A single personal licence is $99 per year, and a Home license for six family members/devices is $129. Being cloud-delivered it regularly updates with new features and patches. So, existing users do not have to do anything. It will flow from 21 April.

Business users also can get a Microsoft 365 standard/premium subscription per employee for $12/17 per month. Premium adds SharePoint, Teams and Exchange.

Microsoft 365 – what is different?

First – don’t panic. While there are tens of thousands of features in Office 365 – and the average person uses perhaps ten of them – Microsoft 365 will still be familiar. No learning curve required.

Microsoft says it has added new artificial intelligence (AI), rich content and templates, and cloud-powered experiences to empower you to become a better writer, presenter, designer, manager of your finances, and deepen your connection to the people in your life.

Also coming soon is a Family Safety app and Teams collaboration app for family and friends.

Microsoft 365 Highlights include

A major expansion of Microsoft Editor. It has advanced grammar and style refinements, clarity, conciseness, formal language, vocabulary suggestions, and much more. It will also check for similarity and even offer rewrite suggestions.
PowerPoint Presenter Coach uses AI to detect if you are talking too fast, saying “umm” too much, or just reading the text from your slides. It can now assess the monotone pitch and speech refinement.
PowerPoint Designer helps you be more creative
Excel becomes a family finance hub. Connect your bank and credit card accounts to Money in Excel. You can import transactions and account balances automatically and create a personalized workbook leveraging the rich features of Excel.
Excel – new data types for over 100 topics. These include food, movies, places, chemistry, and even Pokémon.
Outlook joint home and business calendar
Outlook ‘Play my Emails’ on Android
Skype Meet now – free video meetings on the fly
Microsoft Teams for your personal life. Connect, stay organized, and collaborate with family and friends. Create groups to plan trips with friends; organize a neighbourhood gathering or your next book club meeting. You’ll be able to connect in a group chat, make video calls, collaborate over shared to-do lists and assign tasks to specific people, coordinate schedules, share photos and videos, all in one place.
Microsoft Family Safety app manages screen time across Windows PCs, Android, and Xbox.