Facing growing competition from Google's similar service Google Apps, Microsoft designed the Office 365 platform to 'bring together' its existing online services (such as the Business Productivity Online Suite) into 'an always-up-to-date cloud service' incorporating Exchange Server (for e-mail), SharePoint (for internal social networking, collaboration, and a public web site), and Lync (now Skype for Business) (for communication, VoIP, and conferencing). Microsoft first announced Office 365 in October 2010, beginning with a private beta with various organizations, leading into a public beta in April 2011, and reaching general availability on Jwith a launch aimed originally at corporate users, framing Office 365 as a successor to Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). The Office 365 branding remains in use for subscription plans targeting some enterprise markets. All Microsoft 365 plans include automatic updates to their respective software at no additional charge, as opposed to conventional licenses for these programs-where new versions require purchase of a new license. Microsoft 365 encompasses subscription plans that allow use of the Microsoft Office software suite over the life of the subscription, as well as cloud-based software-as-a-service products for business environments, such as hosted Exchange Server, Skype for Business Server, and SharePoint, among others. Most products that were called Office 365 were renamed as Microsoft 365 on the same day. On April 21, 2020, the consumer and small business plans of Office 365 were renamed Microsoft 365 to emphasize their current inclusion of products and services beyond the core Microsoft Office software family (including cloud-based productivity tools and artificial intelligence features). The brand was launched on July 10, 2017, for a superset of Office 365 with Windows 10 Enterprise licenses and other cloud-based security and device management products.

Microsoft 365, formerly Office 365, is a line of subscription services offered by Microsoft which adds to and includes the Microsoft Office product line.

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