Microsoft to retire Microsoft 365 Companion apps in December

Microsoft announced that it will retire the Calendar, People, and Files Microsoft 365 companion apps on December 16 and urged admins to remove them from managed devices in their organization.

This follows Microsoft's October 2025 announcement that it will begin automatically installing them on all Windows 11 enterprise devices with the Microsoft 365 desktop client apps by the end of December 2025.

The Microsoft 365 companion apps integrate Copilot for contextual AI assistance and can help locate people within the organization, access Microsoft 365 and locally stored files, and manage one's schedule using the Microsoft 365 calendar from the Windows 11 taskbar.

According to Microsoft's support, once installed, these apps also launch automatically at startup by default to help users "quickly look up contacts, find files, and check your schedule without delay" and ensure they "show relevant results as soon as users open the app."

However, IT admins could also opt out of automatic installation via Device Configuration settings in the Apps Admin Center, and users could disable auto-launch from each app's Settings dialog by turning off the "Start app minimized when you log in" option.

Roughly a year after it began automatically rolling out these apps to compatible devices, Microsoft announced that the Microsoft 365 companion apps will reach end of life on December 16, 2026, when the company said they will no longer be supported and will stop functioning.

"The Microsoft 365 companion apps—Calendar, People, and Files — are taskbar-integrated apps designed to streamline everyday workflows, helping users stay focused, reduce context switching, and complete tasks faster," it said in a Microsoft 365 message center update on Friday.

"We are retiring the companion apps, and they will no longer function or be supported after 16. December 2026. We advise admins remove the apps from devices in their tenant by this date."

Starting on Friday, Microsoft has also stopped installing these companion apps through Microsoft 365 Apps updates. While it installed them automatically on compatible systems, Microsoft has asked admins and users of unmanaged devices to uninstall the apps themselves.

On Friday, Microsoft also reminded admins to migrate Entra ID users to phishing-resistant methods (such as passkeys, QR code authentication, or FIDO2 security keys) to avoid sign-in disruptions after it retires SMS first-factor sign-in starting in February 2027.