Microsoft's star product Office 365 has reached a milestone.

Microsoft officially announced that starting from April 21, 2020, Office 365 will be upgraded to Microsoft 365, and Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions will be online.

Office 365 upgraded to Microsoft 365

According to the official introduction, Microsoft 365 consumer subscription will include two versions-personal version and family version.

Existing Office 365 subscribers will be upgraded to Microsoft 365 for free. The subscription price remains unchanged. The personal version in mainland China is 398 yuan per year, and the home version is 498 yuan per year (including up to 6 users).

In addition, Microsoft also mentioned that it will provide third-party application services to subscribers for a limited time. Service providers include Adobe, Bark, Blinkist, CreativeLive, Experian, Headspace, TeamSnap, etc.

In addition to the name change, its platform functions have also undergone new changes, mainly including:

Join FamilySafety and Teams programs in addition to Office, OneDrive, and Outlook;

Join the AI ​​program Microsoft Editor;

Provide additional content to Office subscribers, including templates, images, videos, etc.;

Excel adds a new service to track and analyze personal spending;

PPT has a new presentation coaching function. If the presenter has too many modal particles such as "um" in his speech, the application will remind him.

After upgrading from Office 365 to Microsoft 365, it is not difficult to see that Microsoft 365 is not only a solution provider for enterprise users, but also a productivity tool provider for individual/family subscribers.

At the same time, this upgrade also marks the end of Office 365.

The end of Office 365

Office 365 was launched on June 28, 2011. It is a subscription-based cross-platform office software that provides services based on a cloud platform, including Office suites (including Word/Excel/PowerPoint), OneDrive, etc.

At the time of launch, facing competition from other similar services (such as Google Apps), Microsoft redesigned the Office 365 platform and integrated its existing online services into a constantly updated cloud service network, including Exchange Server, SharePoint, etc.

In addition, Microsoft has initially launched an enterprise plan to provide enterprises with services such as Exchange e-mail, SharePoint Online, and Lync Online. After the service is officially launched, enterprise users can migrate BPOS to the Office 365 platform.

Then, with the release of Office 2013, the Office 365 platform released an updated version on February 27, 2013, launching different versions of services such as Small Business Premium, Medium Premium and ProPlus. In addition, Microsoft has also promoted the integration of Yammer with Office 365, such as logging in with the same account, document sharing, etc.

On July 8, 2013, Microsoft launched PowerBI, a business intelligence and self-service data mining tool for Office 365. It is understood that PowerBI is mainly integrated into Excel, allowing users to apply PowerQuery tools to create spreadsheets and graphics using public and private data.

It is not difficult to see that in the early days of the launch of Office 365, the focus of efforts was mainly on enterprise users.

By 2014, Office 365 began to cover individual consumers. In March 2014, Microsoft announced that it would rename "Home Premium" to "Home" and add a "Personal" subscription option for individual users.

It is worth mentioning that Microsoft announced unlimited OneDrive storage for Office 365 subscribers in October 2014, but later canceled it due to user abuse and the reduction of Microsoft storage options, and returned to the 1TB limit.

In April 2017, Microsoft announced that it would cancel support for Office desktop services on October 13, 2020. It hopes that users will subscribe to Office 365 and migrate to a new cloud storage solution as soon as possible.

In July of the same year, Microsoft 365 was launched.

As of today, after nearly 9 years of development, Office 365 has spawned multiple productivity applications that can provide collaboration solutions for businesses, families, and individuals. However, with the launch of Microsoft 365, it has become a more comprehensive and secure solution. Gradually replace Office 365 in various fields until Office 365 is eliminated.

Microsoft 365 access

The first is in the field of corporate services.

In July 2017, Microsoft released the Microsoft 365 service at the Inspire Global Partner Conference, integrating multiple products such as Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility+Security.

Microsoft CEO Nadella said at the conference that the modern workplace is the most defining solution... Considering the current changes in population distribution, employee cooperation skills and team collaboration methods, enterprises need to be modern and specific. Safe workplace. Thus launched Microsoft 365.

When Microsoft 365 was launched, there were mainly two configurations positioned in different market areas - Microsoft 365 Business and Microsoft 365 Enterprise; no matter which configuration, it showed the characteristics of Microsoft 365 for business needs.

Among them, Microsoft 365 Enterprise Edition is built based on the SecureProductiveEnterprise plan and is mainly aimed at large enterprises. It integrates Office 365 Enterprise Edition, Windows 10 Enterprise Edition, and Enterprise Mobility + Security to achieve more secure collaboration;

Microsoft 365 Business Edition is mainly aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises with less than 300 employees. It includes Office 365 Business Premium Edition and customized Windows 10 security and manageability and enterprise mobility + security, providing employees, business security and protection. Services that simplify IT management.

Compared with Office 365, Microsoft 365 provides more comprehensive software solutions, especially for consumers using Windows 10 systems. Microsoft can install Microsoft 365 services in the system to provide consumers with more convenient channels.

Second is the field of education.

At the Ignite2017 conference, Microsoft announced a new Microsoft 365 subscription - Education Edition, mainly for the education market, including Office 365 Education Edition, Windows 10, Enterprise Mobility + Security Suite and "Minecraft: Education Edition".

Now, with Microsoft announcing the launch of the Microsoft 365 consumer subscription version, Office 365 has also lost its position in the field of individual consumers and home users.

At this point, Office 365 has completely come to an end, and Microsoft 365 is fully online.