Office Insider is now Microsoft 365 Insider: Here are the changes

Microsoft announced that it is making changes to its Office Insider program, which will now be called the Microsoft 365 Insider. While this means changing the program’s name, the software giant explained that the changes wouldn’t affect Insider updates. Nonetheless, it added that its different program-related web and social media accounts, program purview, and release note locations would be adjusted. The Redmond company said that this move reflects its transition plan for Office to Microsoft 365.

“In alignment with the transition from Office to Microsoft 365, we have changed the name of the Office Insider program to the Microsoft 365 Insider program,” Microsoft said. “Our goals are to help you learn about all of the upcoming Microsoft 365 features, apps and services, and to deliver content that you are interested in, no matter which preview program or update channel the updates are released through.”

The transition is now rolling out, which will continue through March. This will affect every Office Insider registrant, who won’t have to do any reapplication or additional steps to remain part of the program. Specifically, Microsoft underlined that Office Insider updates wouldn’t be affected and that apps in Current Channel (Preview) and Beta Channel would continue to receive Insider updates automatically. Nonetheless, it will be different for some Microsoft 365 apps. According to Microsoft, the feature release of these apps might arrive through a different Preview channel, though it would note this in the Availability section of its future posts.

Some parts of the transition that concerned individuals can now spot are the changes to the different accounts of the program. This includes its website (which sports a new homepage), Twitter handle (now @MSFT365Insider), and community sites. The company’s content offering release notes, meanwhile, can now be found on Learn.microsoft.com. As for the program’s purview, there is an expansion of the topics that will now be discussed and shared with Insiders.

“You may have noticed that we’ve been publishing blog posts about offerings beyond the traditional Office apps,” Microsoft said. “We will continue to expand our blog coverage of features, apps, and services under the Microsoft 365 umbrella moving forward.”

The change happened seven years after the launch of the Office Insider program in 2015. During these years, the software company introduced other offerings and more productivity apps, pushing it to rename Office to Microsoft 365, which explains this latest move. 

In related news, the tech giant recently introduced a new Microsoft 365 consumer plan called ‘Microsoft 365 Basic,’ a consumer-focused paid plan offering 100 GB of OneDrive storage, ad-free and secure email with Outlook, and Microsoft 365/Windows 11 support access.