Microsoft Office renamed to “Microsoft 365 Copilot app” • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft Office renamed to “Microsoft 365 Copilot app”

#221

Post by steve1977 » Mon, Jan 05, 2026, 10:28 PM UTC

duxup wrote: post #213

ulrikrasmussen wrote: post #56

I genuinely thought this was a joke when I saw the headline, and I had to double check the domain name to verify that this wasn't a parody. Apart from being absolutely abysmal marketing, the front page alone is wildly inconsistent: * "Welcome to Microsoft 365 Copilot" * "The Microsoft 365 Copilot app (formerly Office) [...]" * "Microsoft 365 (formerly Microsoft Office 365) is a subscription service [...]" Which is it…

IIRC one point Microsoft had a marketing campaign where they associated everything with ".NET" and nobody could explain exactly what ".NET" even was. Here we go with Copilot.

Oh I remember. For those interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_.NET_strategy

Re: Microsoft Office renamed to “Microsoft 365 Copilot app”

#222

Post by anoojb » Mon, Jan 05, 2026, 10:36 PM UTC

A dozen or more people are going to get promoted for the "impact" associated with this project.

> "Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome" > -Charlie Munger

Re: Microsoft Office renamed to “Microsoft 365 Copilot app”

#223

Post by WorldMaker » Mon, Jan 05, 2026, 10:36 PM UTC

BomberFish wrote: post #7

"The Microsoft 365 Copilot app (formerly Office)" has got to be the worst rebrand ever. This is gonna be up there with Twitter's rebrand as a case study 20 years down the line.

The original "own goal" is that "Office app" was a Windows Phone 7/Windows 8 application no one used called something boring like "Preview" or "Document Hub" around the time OneDrive was still being called SkyDrive from the Windows Phone "Hub app" era. The app was basically just an MRU view of SkyDrive filtered to Word/Excel/PowerPoint documents.

Renaming that app "Office app" didn't do much to explain what it was for or what it was good at, especially with the confusion of "Office suite" and "Office app". (Some of that seemingly intentional with "Office app" trying to be a "Start Here" for Office documents.) I think that rename was worse than the new one.

With the rename to "Microsoft 365 Copilot app" there's actually new features and some idea of what the app is now for ("doing LLM things while wearing a corporate document fursona"). It's a dumb name, but a dumb name for an app that's a little less dumb.

Re: Microsoft Office renamed to “Microsoft 365 Copilot app”

#224

Post by eientei95 » Mon, Jan 05, 2026, 10:36 PM UTC

> Copilot in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app is available for Microsoft 365 Enterprise, Academic, and SMB subscribers with a work or education account. Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers and free accounts can access Copilot at copilot.microsoft.com and on the Copilot mobile app

So you don't even have Copilot in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app

Re: Microsoft Office renamed to “Microsoft 365 Copilot app”

#225

Post by ChrisArchitect » Mon, Jan 05, 2026, 10:37 PM UTC

This is not 2026 news. Whatever's being spread around on social media today is late rage bait. Change occurred a year ago OP. And there was plenty of discussion and reporting.

Re: Microsoft Office renamed to “Microsoft 365 Copilot app”

#226

Post by WorldMaker » Mon, Jan 05, 2026, 10:39 PM UTC

array_key_first wrote: post #216

spiffytech wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HBO Max was renamed to just Max. They've now changed it back.

I don't know how they could look at a brand like "HBO Max" and, somehow, deduce that "Max" is the most important part of the name.

The executives in charge at that point made a lot of money on the "90 Day Fiance" "franchise", among other badly and/or dully and/or grossly named things. IP and branding wasn't exactly their strong suit.

Re: Microsoft Office renamed to “Microsoft 365 Copilot app”

#227

Post by WorldMaker » Mon, Jan 05, 2026, 10:43 PM UTC

GaryBluto wrote: post #146

bluehex wrote: post #50

Such confusing naming they can't even keep it straight in the announcement. "The Microsoft 365 Copilot app" in the introductory paragraph. Then there's a button "Buy Microsoft 365" The link below is as "Download Microsoft 365 apps for MacOS" And the file you get is: Microsoft_365_and_Office_16~Installer.pkg So is it the "Microsoft 365 Copilot app", or is it just "Microsoft 365" or multiple "Microsoft 365 apps"? Above…

I'm struggling to determine whether it is a singular "app" or multiple apps for various "Microsoft 365" functions, or both.

This name change is about a single "app" that was formerly called "Office app", not to be confused with the Office "suite", which in more cases than not also gets renamed, but in a subordinate brand sort of way ("the Office suite of applications, brought to you as a part of Microsoft 365").

The "Office app" itself was mostly just a launcher for the other apps. Now it is also/primarily an LLM chat interface.

Re: Microsoft Office renamed to “Microsoft 365 Copilot app”

#228

Post by ejboy » Mon, Jan 05, 2026, 11:02 PM UTC

nelox wrote: post #27

1975: Traf-O-Data renamed Microsoft. Traffic counting ditched. Visionary. 1985: MS-DOS released. Users typed everything. Peak convenience. 1995: Windows 95 launched. Clippy forced assistance. Users thrilled. 2012: Metro interface rolled out. Tiles everywhere. Intuitive design. 2014: Windows Azure renamed Microsoft Azure. “Windows” dropped. Bold move. 2020: Office 365 renamed Microsoft 365. Bing renamed Microsoft Bing…

2026 Microsoft renamed to Cope-A-Lot

Re: Microsoft Office renamed to “Microsoft 365 Copilot app”

#229

Post by terminalbraid » Mon, Jan 05, 2026, 11:06 PM UTC

ulrikrasmussen wrote: post #56

I genuinely thought this was a joke when I saw the headline, and I had to double check the domain name to verify that this wasn't a parody. Apart from being absolutely abysmal marketing, the front page alone is wildly inconsistent: * "Welcome to Microsoft 365 Copilot" * "The Microsoft 365 Copilot app (formerly Office) [...]" * "Microsoft 365 (formerly Microsoft Office 365) is a subscription service [...]" Which is it…

It is a joke. Microsoft is the joke.

Re: Microsoft Office renamed to “Microsoft 365 Copilot app”

#230

Post by thelinesnloops » Mon, Jan 05, 2026, 11:06 PM UTC

duxup wrote: post #213

ulrikrasmussen wrote: post #56

I genuinely thought this was a joke when I saw the headline, and I had to double check the domain name to verify that this wasn't a parody. Apart from being absolutely abysmal marketing, the front page alone is wildly inconsistent: * "Welcome to Microsoft 365 Copilot" * "The Microsoft 365 Copilot app (formerly Office) [...]" * "Microsoft 365 (formerly Microsoft Office 365) is a subscription service [...]" Which is it…

IIRC one point Microsoft had a marketing campaign where they associated everything with ".NET" and nobody could explain exactly what ".NET" even was. Here we go with Copilot.

It wasn’t during that exact period, but at some point they even let you create @dot.net e-mail addresses. I nabbed one and was happy for the vanity of it all, but they mysteriously unplugged them maybe two or three years later.