Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Office 365 licence changes coming on October 2, 2018.

According to a blog post from Microsoft, from October 2, 2018 there will be some changes to the Office 365 Home/Personal licences. The first thing to note is you don't have to do anything. This will all happen automatically.

I'm always a bit perplexed when companies make changes. Often there can be a bit of manipulation. You appear to be getting something extra, when in the background something is being taken away.

If I've read the following article correctly this is what you get from October 2, 2018.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/important-news-about-your-office-365-subscription-06828297-4f1d-4059-8748-365d8e658968

Microsoft previously allowed you to load Office 365 onto up to 10 devices. Now you'll be able to load Office 365 onto an unlimited number of devices. That's good for convenience as the software's on the devices if needed.

For Office 365 Personal you'll be able to load Office 365 on all your devices but you'll only be able to sign into five at any one time. That appears to be an improvement as previously you only had one PC or Mac and a tablet. Now if looks like you could have PC, Mac, tablet, mobile device, etc.

For Office 365 Home you'll now have an additional user licence giving you six users. Each user will be able to sign into up to 5 devices at one time. Previously it was 5 users and up to 10 devices. In effect 2 devices per user. Now it looks like there could be up to 30 devices signed in.

Overall there doesn't seem to be any losses, just gains for users.

For Office 365 Personal it now means if you have more devices such as PCs and Macs, the Personal licence may be used instead of the Home licence.

Overall there's more options, more flexibility and potential for home users and their families to save money and that's always a good thing.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support