Microsoft to migrate Office 365 Personal and Home users to Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 will add new cloud-based features to Office 365 Personal and Home subscribers
Microsoft is to begin migrating Office 365 Personal and Home subscribers to Microsoft 365 over the next few weeks.
The shift will take place on 21st April, according to Microsoft corporate vice president Yusuf Mehdi.
"An evolution of Office 365, Microsoft 365 builds on the foundation of Office infusing new artificial intelligence (AI), rich content and templates, and cloud-powered experiences to empower you to become a better writer, presenter, designer, manager of your finances, and deepen your connection to the people in your life," wrote Mehdi, introducing the move.
In addition, the company is planning to roll out a new Microsoft Family Safety app "designed to keep your family safe across the digital and physical worlds" and a number of new features to Microsoft Teams to "bring you closer to your friends and family".
Among the new features coming to the various elements of Microsoft 365 include Microsoft Editor, an AI-powered service for Word and Outlook, as well as a browser extension for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge web browsers, which will check spelling and grammar, and provide suggestions for rewriting sentences for clarity.
In addition, according to Mehdi, Microsoft Editor will also offer plagiarism-checking capabilities and make it easier to incorporate citations into documents.
Microsoft PowerPoint will also incorporate a Presenter Coach to enable presenters to rehearse their lines, with "AI to detect if you're talking too fast, saying ‘umm' too much, or just reading the text from your slides". It will also include monotone pitch and speech refinement features to warn a presenter that, frankly, they sound a bit boring and ought to vary their pitch or better phrase their script.
Word, Excel and PowerPoint will also provide Designer features, enabling access to videos and images from Getty Images, new fonts and icons, and the ability to "transform text into a beautiful timeline".
Excel will provide a new feature called Money, intended to help users to manage, track and analyse personal finances more easily.
"A secure and simple process powered by Plaid allows you to connect your bank and credit card accounts to Money in Excel, so you can import transactions and account balances automatically and create a personalized workbook leveraging the rich features of Excel.
"Money in Excel can help you improve your spending habits by providing personalized insights on your monthly spending and proactive alerts about price changes for recurring payments, bank fees, overdraft warnings, and more."
Outlook, meanwhile, will offer the ability to integrate personal calendars with work calendars, "while still maintaining privacy around the details of personal appointments", according to Mehdi.