If you’re an Office 365 user and rely on it for your iPhone, you’re not going to love this.
Microsoft has begun stripping editing features from its 365 Copilot app on iOS, forcing users to rely on standalone Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps starting September 15, 2025. The app for iPhone will cease to support editing documents, spreadsheets, or presentations beginning September 15. The change will also be seen with the iPad version over the following weeks, meaning that anyone who tries to open a Word document, Excel spreadsheet, or PowerPoint slide in Copilot will see a banner prompting them to install the standalone apps.
Microsoft has commented that the change is a “streamlined file preview experience,”
It’s currently speculated that Microsoft is looking to separate its AI tools from its editing software, and that the 365 Copilot app will look like a viewer with chat features, while the standalone apps will do the heavy lifting.
At present, both the Microsoft Office applications as well as Copilot can summarize and create documents, but neither is especially clear about what happens when you try to actually edit them.
Either way, the change is coming to both your iPhone and iPad over the next several weeks, whether you want it or not.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via AppleInsider and support.microsoft.com