Microsoft Office 365 might get a rebrand at upcoming virtual event

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Microsoft is planning to hold a virtual event on March 30th, which according to an invite received by ZDNet will be "a digital briefing to unveil the latest from Microsoft..." and you will "Learn about how to be more productive across work, life and family." 

The suspicion is that the event will focus on a new "Microsoft 365 Life" subscription service that will serve as both a rebranding of Office 365 Personal and Home as well as the introduction of some new services. 

Office 365 Home currently includes the premium version of the full Microsoft Office Suite, 1TB of OneDrive storage per user (up to 6 users), and tech support via chat or phone for $99.99 per year. Office 365 Personal includes all of the same for a single user and is $69.99 per year.

The refreshed service is expected to retain this pricing while also adding in some additional consumer-focused productivity features like a password manager. 

Another longstanding rumor that could be integrated into the service is a consumer version of Teams. Multiple sources have confirmed the team-chat service from Microsoft will be gaining a consumer option, but whether this will be part of the March 30th announcement or not is uncertain. 

What will not be making an appearance at the virtual event is any new hardware from Microsoft according to ZDNet's Mary Foley, presumably that will have to wait for the now virtual Microsoft Build conference in May.

Sean Riley

Sean Riley has been covering tech professionally for over a decade now. Most of that time was as a freelancer covering varied topics including phones, wearables, tablets, smart home devices, laptops, AR, VR, mobile payments, fintech, and more.  Sean is the resident mobile expert at Laptop Mag, specializing in phones and wearables, you'll find plenty of news, reviews, how-to, and opinion pieces on these subjects from him here. But Laptop Mag has also proven a perfect fit for that broad range of interests with reviews and news on the latest laptops, VR games, and computer accessories along with coverage on everything from NFTs to cybersecurity and more.