- Consumers given until January 2026 to update Office to retain support for voice tools
- A backend update means older versions will no longer be supported
- A broader Office/Windows update push is ongoing
Microsoft is warning users of older versions of Office that they will soon be losing access to certain voice tools, including transcription, dictation and read aloud, as of January 2026.
The dropped features include systems to read documents and emails aloud, speech-to-text conversions and voice-to-text input, but those who fail to update to Office version 16.0.18827.20202 or newer will lose out.
This is for most casual users, however Government Cloud users including GCC, GCC High and DoD environments will have an additional two months to apply the change.
“To ensure continued high-quality performance of the Read Aloud, Transcription, and Dictation features in Microsoft 365 Office apps, we’re upgrading the backend service that powers these capabilities,” the notice warned.
Microsoft justified the change by adding it is upgrading the backend service which powers these voice features, therefore older versions must lose support to ensure ongoing compatibility with newer versions.
Word, Outlook, OneNote and PowerPoint are among the most commonly used apps to lose support for voice tools, and there will be no local fallback once the deadline is passed. Perpetual license holders will already be used to limited functionality, lacking most cloud-powered voice tools already.
This isn’t the only change that Office users are facing in the coming months – by October 14, 2025, Office 2016 and 2019 will reach end of extended support. Office apps on Windows 10 also lose support later this year, with Windows 10 itself going out of date in October too.
With numerous Microsoft-related deadlines all approaching at rapid speed, the company is finally seeing an uptick in adoption of its latest software. Windows 11 installs finally overtook Windows 10 installs for the first time in July 2025, after a moment of crossover in June.
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