Microsoft is Retiring its Microsoft 365 Browser Extension

Microsoft is pulling the plug on its Microsoft 365 browser extension, which used to be the Office extension for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. This extension will reach end of support on January 15th, 2024, and it will also be removed from the Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome web stores.

The software giant announced the news on the Microsoft 365 Admin Center this week, where it also recommended users to remove the extension once it’s no longer supported. Actually, users who have the extension installed will soon see a notification with instructions on how to remove it. You can already check out these instructions on this support page.

As of today, the Microsoft 365 browser extension opens a pop-up window providing quick access to Microsoft 365 web apps and recent documents stored in the Microsoft cloud. This isn’t exactly a killer feature as you can just add the office.com (or microsoft365.com) portal to your bookmarks and get the same shortcuts to Microsoft 365 apps and recent documents.

On Microsoft Edge, the new Edge sidebar accessible by clicking the new Copilot (previously Bing) button also has a Microsoft 365 pane providing the same functionality as the soon-to-be deprecated Microsoft 365 browser extension. As you probably know, there’s also a Microsoft 365 app on Windows 11 and Windows 10 that’s just another way to access the company’s productivity ecosystem.