- Consumers who were given until January 2026 to update the office to maintain support for voting tools
- A Backend Update means older versions will no longer be supported
- A wider office/Windows Update -Push is in progress
Microsoft warns users of older versions of the office that they will soon lose access to certain voting tools, including transcription, dictation and reading high, from January 2026.
The fallen features include systems to read documents and emails aloud, speech-to-text conversions and voice-to-text input, but those who do not update to Office version 16.0.18827.20202 or recent will lose.
These are for most casual users, but government shells, including GCC, GCC High and DOD environments, will have another two months to use the change.
“To ensure continued high-quality performance of reading, transcription and dictation features of Microsoft 365 Office apps, we are upgrading the Backend service that runs these options,” the message warned.
Microsoft justified the change by adding that it is upgrading the backend service that runs these voting functions, therefore older versions must lose support to ensure continuous compatibility with newer versions.
Word, Outlook, OneNote and PowerPoint are among the most commonly used apps to lose support for voting tools and there will be no local relapse when the deadline is adopted. Eternal license holders will already be used for limited functionality that lacks most shooting voting tools already.
This is not the only change that office users will face in the coming months – before October 14, 2025, Office 2016 and 2019, reaching the end of extended support. Office apps on Windows 10 also lose support later in the year, with Windows 10 also going out of date in October.
With several Microsoft-related deadlines, all approaching fast speed, the company finally sees a Uptick in adopting its latest software. Windows 11 installations finally overtook Windows 10 installations for the first time in July 2025, after a moment of crossover in June.
