Microsoft Rebrands the Office Insider Program as Microsoft 365 Insider

Microsoft has announced that it’s rebranding the Office Insider program as the Microsoft 365 Insider program. The company says that this name change aligns with the rebranding of the Office app to Microsoft 365 on Windows, iOS, Android as well as the office.com web portal.

Microsoft launched its Office Insider program about seven years ago. It’s designed to allow users to get early access to improvements and changes for Office applications, including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook. The program provides the opportunity to try out new features and submit feedback about bugs and potential issues.

According to Microsoft, the new Microsoft 365 Insider branding doesn’t bring any changes for the participants enrolled in the program. Microsoft notes that Office Insiders will continue to receive updates in the Current Channel (Preview) and Beta Channel. However, the company has updated the name of the program on the official portal and changed the Twitter handle to @MSFT365Insider.

Additionally, Microsoft indicated that it has moved the Release Notes of the program to the Microsoft Learn website. “You may have noticed that we’ve been publishing blog posts about offerings beyond the traditional Office apps. We will continue to expand our blog coverage of features, apps, and services under the Microsoft 365 umbrella moving forward,” the Office Insider team explained.

When will the Microsoft 365 Insider branding changes happen?

The Microsoft 365 Insider branding changes started rolling out yesterday, and the updates will become generally available in March 2023. Microsoft emphasizes that it’s not completely dropping the Office brand just yet. The company will continue to use the Office branding for its Office long-term servicing channel (LTSC) products and the perpetual licenses of the productivity suite.

Last week, Microsoft announced that it’s launching an affordable Microsoft 365 Basic plan later this month. The new offering is priced at $1.99 per month, and includes 100 GB of OneDrive storage, access to the Office web apps, customer support, and more.