After launching Office 2024 earlier this month, Microsoft has a Word (get it?) for those still using Office 2016 and Office 2019. These productivity app suites entered their last year of support and are currently on track to reach the end of life on October 14, 2025.
Here are the products that will soon be out of support:
| Office Suites | Office 2016, Office 2019 |
|---|---|
| Office Applications | Access 2016, Access 2019, Excel 2016, Excel 2019, OneNote 2016, Outlook 2016, Outlook 2019, PowerPoint 2016, PowerPoint 2019, Project 2016, Project 2019, Publisher 2016, Publisher 2019, Skype for Business 2016, Skype for Business 2019, Visio 2016, Visio 2019, Word 2016, Word 2019 |
| Productivity Servers | Exchange Server 2016, Exchange Server 2019, Skype for Business Server 2015, Skype for Business Server 2019 |
The end of support means no more security updates that can patch critical vulnerabilities, limited or non-existent technical support, no fixes for bugs, and more. Microsoft says using unsupported products can negatively impact organizational security, compliance, and productivity. That applies not just to corporate but also to regular customers.
To help users figure out what to do before their apps run out of support, Microsoft made the following table:
| Office | Exchange Server | Visio | Project | Skype for Business | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recommended path | Microsoft 365 E3, Office 365 E3, or Microsoft 365 Business Standard | Visio Plan 2 | Planner and Project Plan 3 | Microsoft Teams | |
| Alternative path | Microsoft 365 Apps | Exchange Online | Microsoft 365 plan with Visio | Microsoft 365 | - |
| On-premises options | Office LTSC 2024 | Exchange Server Subscription Edition | Visio 2024 | Project 2024 | Skype for Business Server Subscription Edition (coming in Q3 2025) |
Microsoft has also published more in-depth articles, which can help you decide on your upgrade path:
- Office 2016 and 2019 suites and applications
- Exchange Server 2016 and 2019
- Skype for Business 2016 and 2019
- Project 2016 and 2019
- Visio 2016 and 2019
You can read more about Microsoft"s productivity apps that will be out of support by October 14, 2025, in a post on the Tech Community forums.