Microsoft 365 New Icons: A Modern, Colorful Design for the Copilot Era
The 10 core Microsoft Office app icons have been refreshed with a look directly influenced by Copilot AI.
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Image: Microsoft |
After a long time, Microsoft has finally refreshed its Office apps' icons, introducing a look that is notably elegant, fluid, and more curvier than ever before. The software giant has reshaped the visuals for all 10 core Office icons, making them more illustrative and, undoubtedly, modernized.
For eight years, users have seen the same icon design for the core Microsoft Office apps, but now, that has fundamentally changed. Following leaks of the upcoming Office icons last year, the company officially introduced the new set, featuring more fluid and vibrant color icons—a truly attractive and delightful change.
The Design Philosophy: Fluid Forms Meet Copilot
The design shift's philosophy was clearly articulated by Corporate Vice President of Design, Jon Friedman, in a recent blog post. He stated that the new icons "emanate a sense of fluidity and play, while also being simpler, more intuitive, and highly accessible." He further elaborated, emphasizing the move away from rigidity: "We’ve moved away from bold, static solidity to embrace softer, more fluid forms."
We last saw an update to the core 10 Microsoft Office icons—including Defender, Excel, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Teams, and Word—back in 2018. The change Microsoft brings out now is technically a more curvier, gradient, and Fluent style.
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A historical timeline illustrating the evolution of the Office app icons from 2001 to the 2025 refresh. Image: Microsoft |
Microsoft also shared a complete timeline of the icon changes from 2001 to 2025, and the one application consistently refreshed is the Outlook app. This app received a refreshed icon in 2023, when no other icons changed from their prior shapes, and it has been updated once again in this current wave.
Why the AI-Driven Color & Curvier Shapes?
The main driver behind this new design shift is explicitly its Copilot AI influence. The new Office app icons are fluid and curvier in a manner consistent with the Copilot AI logo. Furthermore, the use of gradient color in the new icons also strongly suggests a strategic goal: to deeply signal the change and the increased integration of artificial intelligence. It’s a similar design refresh path that Google also followed for its logo just a few days prior, which Microsoft now admires and follows.
Microsoft made its intent crystal clear, stating: “With Copilot now being such a more complete and integrated system within Microsoft 365, it’s fitting that when refreshing the core 10 Office icons, the primary source of inspiration was the Copilot icon itself.”
Key Takeaways of the Design Refresh
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- Fluid Forms: Sharp edges and crisp lines are replaced by smooth folds and curves, giving the icons a sense of playful motion and approachability.
- Vibrant Colors: The palette is now richer with exaggerated analogous transitions, which improves contrast and accessibility.
- Simplification: Icons are now "delightfully simple" for visual clarity. For instance, the Word icon previously used four lines, but the new icon uses three, successfully improving legibility and showing a concise design behavior.
- Availability: The new icons are rolling out across the web, desktop, and mobile platforms for both consumer and business users.
Previously, the app icons were somewhat sharper and featured colors separated by distinct lines, but the new icon shapes are totally softer, conveying a sense of more fluid shapes.
Share your thoughts about this new Microsoft 365 design! Do you love the more fluid and AI-driven color palette, or not?
