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The last couple of days have seen online tech communities confused about Microsoft’s branding with viral posts claiming it has rebranded its Office tools to "Microsoft 365 Copilot app".
That’s not accurate, but it stems from an confusing situation with Microsoft's own branding. Many posts across Bluesky, Reddit, X, and even LinkedIn are sharing a screenshot taken from Microsoft’s Office.com website.
It shows a disclaimer which reads, “The Microsoft 365 Copilot app (formerly Office) lets you create, share, and collaborate all in one place with your favorite apps now including Copilot."
The viral posts fail to note how this originally changed in early 2025. As spotted by How-To Geek, the Internet Archive confirms the wording has been in place since at least February last year.
Even Perplexity AI’s official X account shared the false information, but it remains unclear why this screenshot gained momentum over the last few days rather than at an earlier date.
As outlined by The Verge, the wording of “formerly Office” in this context isn’t referring to the services such as Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. It’s instead referring to an older portal called Office, first designed to encourage users to try out tools online versions of its tools.
This first launched in 2019 before being renamed Microsoft 365, and then later Microsoft 365 Copilot app. The website works as a hub for you to sign in to your account and access your own Microsoft services, which now also includes the Copilot chatbot.
Microsoft's confusing branding here also includes two further elements that are both called Microsoft 365 Copilot. One is a mobile application built for Android and iOS, while the second is a desktop app for Windows to act as another hub for all of your Microsoft services.