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Office 365 Versions

Disclaimer

This site is not affiliated and neither endorsed by Microsoft Corporation.

The goal of this site is aimed to provide a different format list of Microsoft 365 Apps versions, previously known as Office 365 already published by Microsoft on official documentation.

Information provided here, though reflecting the official documentation in terms of releases and versions, may include personal considerations.

Therefore, please refer to Microsoft official documentation for official support details:

Latest Versions

Here's the list of latest Microsoft 365 Apps versions available based on update channel:

Channel Version Build Latest Release Date First Availability Date End of Service

A brief History

On June 6 2011 Microsoft Corp announced the availability of Microsoft Office 365, the company’s newest cloud service bringing together Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft Lync Online in an always-up-to-date cloud service, at a predictable monthly subscription.

Starting on April 21 2020, Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus has been renamed into Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise. The new name took effect with version 2004 onwards.

During the same timeframe on May 12 2020 Microsoft announced the rebranding of Update Channels based on a modern management approach.

Together with the new update channel terminology a brand new Monthly Enterprise Channel has been introduced. This new update channel was available with version 2003.

The following table summarize the name changes mentioned above:

Former Name New Name
Monthly Channel Current Channel
Semi-Annual Channel Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Monthly Enteprise Channel New
Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted) Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (Preview)
Monthly Channel (Targeted)
(sometimes referred to as Insider Slow)		 Current Channel (Preview)
Insider
(sometimes referred to as Insider Fast)		 Beta Channel

Channel Considerations

Current vs Monthly

Microsoft suggests Current Channel as it provides all newest features as soon as they get released. Unfortunately the Current Channel does not offer a predictable schedule as others channel do. Current channel has at least one release a month (likely more often).

If you require a more predictable release schedule consider to stay on Monthly Enterprise Channel, that similarly as Current Channel provide a new version once a month but release date is aligned to the Patch Tuesday (the second tuesday of the month).

Together with new versions, every month Current and Monthly Enterprise are going to include security and non-security updates.

Current Channel is generally 1 version ahead of Monthly Enterprise Channel.

For this reason consider to keep a small portion of users, such as the IT Department and some "friendly users" on Current Channel to test in advance the new version and try the new features.

When choosing the Monthly Enterprise Channel, take into account also the shorter support lifetime of two months.

In addition, Monthly channel offers two concurrent releases with a month gap between them.

Semi-Annual

If your organization requires a precautionary or more conservative approach to new versions adoption, the Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel is the goto channel.

Where extensive testing is needed in order to comply with regulatory, governmental or organitional requirements, the Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel expects to have a new version only twice a year (January and July).

Unfortunately staying on this Channel the upcoming new features are expected to be included with a slower cadence and eventually several months later.

To try new features, available in the upcoming release, consider to deploy the Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (Preview) on a small portion of users, such as the IT Department and some "friendly users" to test in advance the new version and have hands-on of the new features with the goal to to collect feedbacks.

Similarly to Monthly Enterprise channel, the Semi-Annual Enterprise provides two cuncurrent releases (generaly named XX02 and XX08) to let some organizations to have more time for the transition from one version to another.