Excel is one of the most heavily used spreadsheet software, both in commercial and personal domains. Although Microsoft regularly adds enhancements to Excel, it occasionally removes some too. Now, it has announced that it is ending support for three features from June 2023. These capabilities are available to Microsoft 365 customers, so only subscribers of the service are affected.
The first discontinued Excel product in line is Money. This is essentially a dynamic template that enables users to securely connect to their bank"s data and sync information directly. It will no longer update your transactions after June 30, 2023. You won"t be able to reconnect your existing financial account or connect to a new one either. However, you will be able to retain your current data and Microsoft won"t be able to access it. The Redmond tech giant has recommended people to use other premium budget templates available in Excel or migrate to Tiller. The latter offers more functionalities than Money in Excel but has an additional fee of $79/year too (60-day free trial for Microsoft 365 customers).
Next up is the removal of Wolfram Data Types. Microsoft announced a partnership with Wolfram a few years ago but has now decided that it doesn"t want to renew it. The Excel maker will now be focusing its efforts on its homebrew solutions. Refreshes for existing Data Types and connections to new ones will stop working from June 11, 2023. That said, your existing data won"t be removed, it just won"t be connected to the Wolfram service anymore.
Finally, Microsoft is also removing partner offers because the company wants to explore other areas where it can add more value to customers. Although the company hasn"t gone into more details, it has notified that if you sign up for any offer, you necessarily have to redeem it by June 30, 2023, before it goes away forever.
Although Microsoft has disclosed some reasons for discontinuing all three of these products, Thurrott notes that an email sent out to Microsoft 365 subscribers also mentions that "Microsoft is committed to improving your Microsoft 365 subscription. As a result, we occasionally remove underused features and benefits." While the company has provided some alternatives to its discontinued products, it will be interesting to see if this affects customer churn in any significant way.