Microsoft is having a tough time sticking with a product name, which is another addition to its long list of bad ideas like adding a Copilot key to Windows 11 PCs. Microsoft wants to change the Microsoft 365 app’s name to match the Copilot branding.

The company recently published this information in the Microsoft 365 message center about rebranding Microsoft 365 to Microsoft 365 Copilot. Then, it wants to change the Microsoft Copilot name for Entra account users to Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. All in all, it wants to change the name of the app and its AI chat assistant service for Enterprise customers.

It’s a “necessary” decision, as per Microsoft, which thinks the current naming structure is confusing. The only solution seems to be adding a “Copilot” name to every Enterprise product, which must seem genius in its mind.

It’s also changing the Microsoft 365 Copilot URL to M365Copilot.com and redirect office.com and microsoft365.com requests to m365.cloud.microsoft. There’s also a new icon in the works for the app.

It’ll use the same Copilot icon but with the “M365” label. All these changes will come into effect by mid-January 2025, a month from now.

In short:

Microsoft 365 will become Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Microsoft Copilot (for users with Entra Account) will become Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.

As we reported recently, Copilot key will not open the Copilot app, but instead it will redirect to Microsoft 365 Copilot app.

Remember that Microsoft 365 Copilot is the one stop app to manage Microsoft 365, including Copilot, but it’s not strictly limited to Copilot as the name might suggest. Copilot app does not work on enterprise PCs, which is why Copilot app will open Microsoft 365 Copilot app.

Confusing, right? Good luck to enterprises explaining this to their clients.

Is this change necessary?

Microsoft has never settled for a name for long. Earlier, Copilot was Bing Chat, and then it became Copilot. Now, it wants to change the Microsoft 365 app to a more Copilot-focused branding.

This change comes after their recent suggestion to remap the Copilot key on Enterprise PCs to open the Microsoft 365 app. The app will, by default open the Copilot assistant inside a new tab. We think this name change unnecessarily complicates everything for the Entra account users.

When they can already access Copilot inside the 365 app, why change its name? The Microsoft 365 app offers many more Microsoft products than Copilot, which we think is the least priority of an Enterprise user.

If they wanted, they could allow the users to access the Enterprise version of Copilot via a browser and leave the Microsoft 365 app as a secondary option. Renaming Copilot to Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat only makes it difficult to read and remember.

Only time will tell whether this ends up in a similar laughing stock situation as the Copilot key decision.

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