Microsoft Denies Office-to-Copilot Rebranding Reports

Social media users have been furious for the past few days, saying that Microsoft has changed the name of its well-known Office applications to Microsoft 365 Copilot. This accusation was made after some individuals noticed specific language on Microsoft’s Office website and thought it was a recent modification in the company’s branding. These allegations that Microsoft is rebranding its well-known Office applications have now been categorically refuted.

The Office website featured the following marketing tagline, which social media users noted, especially on X (previously Twitter): “The Microsoft 365 Copilot app (formerly Office) lets you create, share, and collaborate all in one place with your favourite apps now including Copilot.”

This caused a huge response on the internet, with some arguing that Microsoft is once again attempting to force Copilot on its users by doing away with the recognisable Office brand.

One of the Microsoft 365’s Senior Director of Marketing, Gareth Oystryk, confirmed and clarified in a message to a member of the press who had enquired about the issue is that, this is completely untrue and that the Office apps have not just undergone a rebranding, that Word, Excel, and PowerPoint retain their original names. He went on to say that the Office apps haven’t had their names changed recently. The office programs that make up the Microsoft 365 suite productivity suite, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, have not altered. Only the Office “hub” app for mobile and web devices was renamed to the Microsoft 365 app in November 2022. We changed it as the Microsoft 365 Copilot app in January 2025 to better represent its function of combining Copilot and Microsoft 365 productivity activities in one location.

The Office brand has not vanished, even though Microsoft has rebranded some of its services to include the Copilot brand and is now working on renaming numerous more. Although some users may have been confused by the renaming of the Office hub to Microsoft 365 Copilot, this is by no means a fresh move. Remember that the Office perpetual version is still available and differs fundamentally from the Office applications included with the Microsoft 365 subscription.

Microsoft clarified that, in early 2025, the Microsoft 365 “hub” app a portal for accessing files and launching other apps was changed to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app to reflect its role in hosting AI functions, which caused confusion.

A marketing blurb on Office.com that said, “The Microsoft 365 Copilot app (formerly Office)…” became viral on social media. Microsoft pointed out that this is not a renaming of the software suite itself, but rather the evolution of the online gateway (from Office.com to Microsoft 365 to Copilot hub).

And for the 2026 branding hierarchy, some press members has reported that the following names are still in use:

• Microsoft Office (such as Office 2024): This is a one-time, perpetual desktop license.
• Microsoft 365: The subscription service that offers cloud storage and app access.

Microsoft 365 Copilot, which is often known as the unified “hub” application, is an AI layer included into Word, Excel, and other programs for subscribers.