Last week, Microsoft shut down some of its UserVoice forums, and it did so without any warning to its users or even its MVPs. Now, the firm has finally published a support page to show what"s going on.
Unsurprisingly, the answer to our questions from last week is yes, UserVoice is going away. It"s a third-party service, and Microsoft"s going to start using its own first-party solutions. It"s going to be doing this throughout the year on a product-by-product basis.
It"s not a surprise, as the firm has built out so many feedback solutions over the past few years. In the support document, it refers to the Windows Feedback Hub, Microsoft Community, Microsoft TechCommunity, Microsoft Store, and Microsoft Q&A all as resources that it will be using. It doesn"t even mention that some apps, such as the Edge browser, have a feedback mechanism built into them.
"We are always striving to better serve our customers, including how we can improve the tools and processes for collecting feedback," said a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to Neowin. "We are leveraging 1st party solutions and are evaluating enhancements and standardizations to improve and streamline how we communicate with customers and collect their feedback."
With last week"s news, it was the Office 365 UserVoice forums that were shut down, but the rest of them are going away this year. You"re still able to use any UserVoice forums that are still active.